The Korea Herald

Seoul calls for peaceful resolution of disputed sea

Oct 28, 2015

Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday urged for a peaceful resolution to escalating tensions between the U.S. and China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.“South Korea has been strongly calling for restraint of any action that affects peace and stability in the region through various channels including global forums,” a senior official at the presidential office told reporters. “Disputes should be resolved in accordance with international norms.”The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Lass
Expectations low for first Park-Abe summit

Oct 28, 2015

The leaders of South Korea and Japan will hold their first-ever bilateral summit Monday in Seoul, paving the way for improved ties that remained strained for years over historic and territorial disputes. (Yonhap)The summit will take place a day after trilateral talks among the two countries and China, Kim Kyoo-hyun, senior presidential secretary on foreign affairs said at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday. The leaders will have an in-depth talk on a wide range of issues including sex slaves, but they w
Park to hold talks with Abe next week

Oct 28, 2015

President Park Geun-hye will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next week, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday, in the first bilateral summit between leaders of the two neighbors in more than three years.Park has so far shunned a bilateral meeting with Abe due to territorial and other historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.Park is set to meet with Abe next Monday, Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters.
Regional powers gather to discuss peace, cooperation

Oct 28, 2015

Senior government officials from South Korea, the United States and other regional powers gathered in Seoul on Wednesday to discuss ways to promote peace and cooperation in a region fraught with historical and territorial disputes.President Park Geun-hye launched the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative in 2013 with the aim of building regional peace by first cooperating on soft issues, such as nuclear safety, disaster management and the environment.The second government-level meeting
China to expand memorial hall honoring anti-Japanese Korean independence hero

Oct 28, 2015

China plans to double the size of a memorial hall honoring a revered Korean independence hero who assassinated a prominent Japanese colonial leader more than a century ago in China, the memorial hall's officials said Wednesday. Chinese railway authorities opened the memorial hall earlier last year honoring the Korean independence hero Ahn Jung-geun, who assassinated the Korean Peninsula's first Japanese governor-general, Hirobumi Ito, at a railway station in the northeastern Chinese city of Harb
Japan scholars urge Abe to address 'comfort women' issue during summit

Oct 28, 2015

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should address the thorny issue of wartime sex slavery when he holds summit talks with President Park Geun-hye next week, Japanese scholars said Wednesday.South Korea has proposed the two leaders hold a separate bilateral meeting in Seoul next Monday following a trilateral summit with China.Park and Abe have yet to meet one-on-one as bilateral ties have frayed over various historical and territorial disputes. If they meet next week, a key focus of public attent
KORUS FTA, TPP key part of Obama's rebalance to Asia: Russel

Oct 28, 2015

Concluding the free trade agreement with South Korea and negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership were key economic parts of U.S. President Barack Obama's "rebalance" to Asia policy, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel made the remark during an Atlantic Council discussion, saying that upon taking office, Obama recognized that the Asia-Pacific region was emerging as the driver of global economic growth and made the region a strategic priority.The rebala
'China, U.S. vie with visions for regional order’

Oct 27, 2015

Professor says China has traumatic memories about foreign elements’ call for freedom of navigation
‘5 IS members held in Korea for smuggling bomb ingredient’

Oct 27, 2015

A ruling party lawmaker said Monday that South Korean authorities have detained five members of the militant group Islamic State after they were caught trying to smuggle a key bomb-making ingredient out of the country.Rep. Lee Cheol-woo of the Saenuri Party said in a radio interview that they were held here as they tried to smuggle ammonium nitrate which cannot be easily obtained in their home country, Lebanon.“Our authorities blocked them from taking ammonium nitrate to their country,” Lee said
China urges Japan to face history ahead of 3-way summit

Oct 27, 2015

Japan must squarely face up to its "unbeautiful" past and learn lessons from its wartime aggression if it wants to ensure smooth cooperation with South Korea and China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday, ahead of a trilateral summit among the three nations in Seoul.President Park Geun-hye will host Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the weekend for the three-way summit that had been on hold since 2012 due to a bitter territorial dispute between Chi
Korea, Japan to discuss WWII sexual slavery issue before summit

Oct 27, 2015

South Korean and Japanese officials in charge of delicate talks on Tokyo's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women will meet in Seoul later Tuesday, ahead of next week's summit between the leaders of the two countries, a diplomatic source said.Kimihiro Ishikane, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, is visiting Seoul to attend a forum on ways to promote peace and stability in Northeast Asia.He is Japan's new point man on Korea, serving as chief
U.S. calls for stronger relations in Northeast Asia amid hopes for Korea-Japan summit

Oct 27, 2015

The United States called Monday for strong and constructive relations between countries in Northeast Asia as it reacted to South Korea's offer to hold a summit meeting with Japan for the first time in more than three years.The South made the proposal public earlier Monday, saying it recently suggested to Japan that President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold their first formal talks in Seoul on Nov. 2 on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between the leaders of South Ko
FM vows to step up efforts for stability in Middle East

Oct 26, 2015

South Korea's top diplomat pledged Monday to strengthen efforts to help the Middle East achieve stability.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said South Korea has joined international efforts to defeat the Islamic State militant group at an opening ceremony of a forum meant to boost cooperation between South Korea and the Middle East.Still, he did not elaborate on how South Korea will bring stability to the Middle East marred by conflicts for decades. Separately, Yun said South Korea can be an optimal
New Japanese nuclear envoy to visit Korea

Oct 26, 2015

Japan's new top envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program will visit South Korea this week for talks with his counterparts and other senior officials from the region, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.Kimihiro Ishikane, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, will take part in a multilateral forum on the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative on Wednesday, the ministry said in a press release.The initiative is one of Pres
U.S. diplomat calls for CTBT's ratification to hold defiant countries like N. Korea accountable

Oct 26, 2015

A senior U.S. diplomat has called for the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, saying a legally binding total ban on nuclear explosive testing is necessary to bring to account countries like North Korea that insist on testing.Rose Gottemoeller, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, made the remark in a speech in Alaska last week, stressing that it is in the interests of the United States to ratify the 1996 treaty, according to a transcript of