WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump has put North Korea "clearly on notice," and if he decides to take action, it will be "decisive and proportional" as seen in the US airstrikes on Syria, the White House warned Tuesday.White House press secretary Sean Spicer made the remark, referring to Trump's tweet earlier in the day that the US will solve the problem of North Korea on its own unless China helps with it. Trump also said the North is "looking for trouble." White House press secretary Sean

WASHINGTON -- The US dispatch of an aircraft carrier strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula is a warning to North Korea that the US takes seriously threats from the communist nation, a US congressman said Tuesday.The US Pacific Command has redirected the strike group led by aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to head toward the Korean Peninsula, rather than executing previously planned port visits to Australia, amid heightened concern the North could undertake additional provocations. (Yon

China's top nuclear envoy said Tuesday that he will work hard to bring the United States and North Korea to the negotiating table for direct talks aimed at resolving the North's nuclear stalemate.Wu Dawei made the remarks in a meeting with Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party. During the 40-minute-long meeting, the two discussed North Korea's nuclear program and other issues of mutual concerns, according to Sim, who shared what was discussed in a press briefing.  China's chi

For Seoul, this week’s visit by Wu Dawei, special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs at Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, is timely and weighty, coming amid spiraling concerns over North Korean provocations and shortly after a US-China summit. Yet as soon as he wrapped up his first day with business-as-usual diplomatic consultations, Wu embarked on a mission that may possibly serve what critics say is the real purpose of the trip: meeting with South Korean presidential candidates to appeal ag

South Korea and the United States agreed Tuesday to maintain their firm unity against North Korea's military threats, a show of their robust alliance in the wake of the latest US-China summit talks.David F. Helvey, US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, briefed Wee Seung-ho, South Korea's deputy defense minister for policy, by phone on the results of the Florida meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, according to Wee's mi

BUSAN -- Two vessels belonging to the Pacific Fleet of the Russian naval forces made a port call Tuesday at the South Korean coastal city of Busan as part of a regular exchange program with the South Korean Navy.The call at the port of South Korea's Naval Operations Command by the guided-missile cruiser Varyag and the tanker Pechenga, both 11,000-ton vessels, was the second this year to be made by Russian warships. The guided-missile cruiser Varyag of the Russian Pacific Fleet enters a port in S

SAO PAULO -- Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo has designated August 15 as "Korean Culture Day," raising the prospect of enhancing the Korean community's image in the South American country and boosting the city government's financial support for Korean culture-related events, South Korean officials said Monday.The designation of Korean Culture Day came after a Koreatown was formed in 2010 in Bom Retiro, a densely populated area in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo's Mayor Joao Doria (L) and South Korean Consu

South Korea's defense ministry said Tuesday the Donald Trump administration won't take any substantive military action against North Korea without "close cooperation" with Seoul.It cited the spirit of the bilateral alliance that dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War."(Such a military operation, if any,) will be conducted under the robust South Korea-US combined defense posture based on their close cooperation," the ministry's spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said at a press briefing.South Korean Defense

North Korea and Syria have reaffirmed efforts to step up relations in their recent exchanges of congratulatory messages on key anniversaries as the recent US strike at a Syrian air base alarmed the countries.North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent two congratulatory messages to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the occasions of the 105th birthday of national founder Kim Il-sung and the 5th anniversary of the current leader's elec

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday urged "calm and consistency" amid growing concerns that North Korea could stage provocations in time for its key political events this month.During a Cabinet meeting, Hwang also stressed the need to strengthen the country's vigilance posture against the North "based on the South Korea-US security alliance."Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn (3rd from R) speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the central governm

South Korea, the United States and Japan are arranging a meeting to coordinate their joint response toward North Korea's nuclear and missile threats amid growing concerns that Pyongyang might carry out a major provocation, a foreign ministry official here said Tuesday.A Japanese media report said earlier that top nuclear envoys of the three countries are planning to hold a trilateral meeting in Tokyo later this month, citing multiple government officials.  Kim Hong-kyun (L), South Korea's chief

In the mid-1980s, then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan said that owning only a few nuclear weapons could be enough to induce North Korea to talks aimed at easing growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, declassified diplomatic documents showed Tuesday.Chun made the remarks in his meeting with Edward Rowny who came to Seoul on Oct. 15, 1986, as a USenvoy. Rowny made a visit to brief the Seoul government on Washington's arms reduction negotiations with Moscow, according to the documents.Form

WASHINGTON -- The United States should be prepared to shoot down a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile in the event the communist regime test-fires one as threatened, a US congressman said Monday.Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) made the remark in an interview with CNN as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are running high with the US sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off the divided peninsula to guard against North Korean provocations."That battle carrier group has been in t

WASHINGTON -- The United States should work with South Korea, Japan and China to come up with a plan for what would happen in North Korea after the fall of Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a US senator said Monday."There is a question of who would follow him (Kim Jong-un), and in the conversations I've had with experts on North Korea I don't think anybody has that answer," Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."(Yonha