South Korea and France need to consolidate security and economic ties amid uncertainty over future relations between the US and China under the Donald Trump administration, said the two countries’ senior officials and business leaders Thursday.With President Trump posing a challenge to the postwar liberal order by adopting a series of protectionist and isolationist policies, the panel urged the countries to present a unified front in navigating through looming challenges.Trade Minister Joo Hyung

South Korea is considering conferring an order of merit on a former American congressman who fought for Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, an official said Wednesday.Mike Honda, who served in Congress from 2001 to early this year, was at the forefront of efforts to get Japan to admit to its past wrongdoing and apologize to women who were forced to work in front-line Japanese brothels during World War II. Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945.Mike Honda (Yonhap)The Ministry

South Korea and the United States are considering curbing oil exports to North Korea as part of punitive measures against its possible additional nuclear test, diplomatic sources said Thursday.Multiple news reports have raised the possibility of the North carrying out its sixth nuclear detonation test by pointing to increased excavation activity at its Punggye-ri test site.(Yonhap)According to the sources, Seoul and Washington are considering making a push to curb oil exports to the North throug

MEXICO CITY -- Ecuador on Wednesday called off a visa waiver program for North Korea in an apparent response to UN sanctions on the North's nuclear and missile tests. The step took effect immediately after a foreign minister order requiring North Koreans to get a visa to enter Ecuador was announced in the official gazette on the day.Up until now, North Koreans could stay in the South American nation without a visa for up to 90 days.  This is an Ecuadorian Foreign Minister order to exclude North

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has called on the UN Security Council to discuss North Korean human rights issues, a US report said Thursday. (Yonhap)"I believe the time has come for the UNSC to clarify the relations between human rights and security," she was quoted by the Washington-based Voice of America, as saying during a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations held in the United States on Wednesday."UNSC members should start discussing the matter, which is the right thi

The United States should consider giving North Korea an early warning against transferring nuclear weapons material or technology beyond its borders, a former chief nuclear negotiator with Pyongyang said Wednesday."Among developments we need to be most concerned about in terms of probability of occurrence and magnitude of impact, is the transfer by North Korea of nuclear weapons materials or technology to another state or terrorist group," said Robert Gallucci, who negotiated a 1994 nuclear free

US Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL) said Wednesday China is "sanctioning the wrong Korea" as he denounced a series of punitive measures Beijing has taken in retaliation against South Korea for hosting the US THAAD missile defense system."China's decision to punish South Korea is not only regrettable, it's inappropriate. Frankly, China is sanctioning the wrong Korea, and Beijing needs to do more to crack down on North Korea's illicit weapons programs," Yoho said during a House Foreign Affairs Committe

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a set of bipartisan measures on North Korea on Wednesday, including legislation calling for imposing harsher sanctions on Pyongyang and relisting the regime as a state sponsor of terrorism.Also approved by the committee was a resolution that urges China to halt a series of punitive measures taken in retaliation against South Korea for its decision to host the US THAAD missile defense system and denounces North Korea's missile development.Swift passag

The United States should be prepared to launch preemptive strikes on North Korea, including a nuclear attack if necessary, before the communist nation uses its nuclear bombs that could "kill 90 percent of Americans," a former CIA chief said Wednesday.James Woolsey, who served as CIA director from 1993-95, made the case in an op-ed piece in the Hill newspaper, arguing that the US is erroneously underestimating Pyongyang's capabilities to deliver nuclear weapons by missile, freighter and even sate

The top Russian envoy in South Korea called on all relevant countries on Wednesday to exercise restraint from any action that could heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid growing anxiety that North Korea's additional nuclear test is imminent.In a forum held in central Seoul, Russian Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Timonin also underlined the need for resumption of the long-suspended six-party negotiations aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear stalemate. Russian Ambassador to South

Residents in Hawaii and Alaska, among US citizens, are the most sensitive to North Korean developments, with the number of searches with the keyword "North Korea" the highest among the states, a US broadcaster reported Wednesday. Hawaii and Alaska, among US states, are US territories located closest to North Korea, and thus their residents are the most responsive whenever North Korean issues hit newsstands, Voice of America said.  A defector activist holds up a placard denouncing Pyongyang for t

A global agency fighting against nuclear tests said Wednesday it's keeping close tabs on North Korea's reported preparations for another nuclear test.The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization warned that the reclusive communist country won't be able to mask its nuclear activity. Satellite imagery of North Korea's nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in this photo provided by DigitalGlobe and 38 North website. (Yonhap)"We have also seen the reports (of the N

South Korea and India agreed to hold a meeting of their vice defense and foreign ministers this year in a move to bolster their "strategic cooperation" on political and security areas, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam speaks during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Yonhap)The agreement over the "two-plus-two meeting" was announced after Seoul's First Vice Foreign Ministry Lim Sung-nam held talks with his counterpart Preeti S

South Korea and Egypt have signed an agreement on strengthening bilateral defense cooperation, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday, as Seoul is actively reaching out to African nations.South Korean Vice Defense Minister Hwang In-moo inked the memorandum of understanding with Egyptian Defense Minister Sedki Sobhy in Cairo on Tuesday (local time).A halal food restaurant in Itaewon, Seoul (Yonhap)The deal is expected to serve as a chance for promoting substantive military exchanges and

US House Speaker Paul Ryan picked North Korea as one of the four biggest threats facing the United States, saying the communist nation is churning out anti-American invective while testing nuclear weapons and missiles. US House Speaker Paul Ryan (EPA-Yonhap)"We are living in very dangerous times. ISIS still threatens our troops abroad and inspired terrorism here at home. North Korea continues to spew belligerent, anti-American rhetoric while testing long range missiles and nuclear devices," Ryan