Pakistan is poised to grow as part of the global economy and a safer investment haven, the country’s Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Kahn told journalists last week. Khan visited Seoul to expand economic cooperation and elicit Korean investment in Pakistan, building on former Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won’s visit to Islamabad in April last year. He participated in the first annual meeting of the Pakistan-Korea Joint Trade Commission Wednesday, as both countries seek to launc

Switzerland and Korea can join hands to reduce the world’s carbon footprint and push sustainable use of energy, the Swiss environment minister highlighted last week. Switzerland’s minister of the environment, transport, energy and communications (DETEC), Doris Leuthard, came to Korea on a four-day visit to share her country’s sustainable policies and innovations, supported by the Institute for Global Economics, the Swiss Embassy in Seoul and the Swiss-Korean Business Council. The minister was ac

South Korea and the U.S. have launched a joint panel to investigate the shipment of a possibly live anthrax sample to an American military base here, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday, more than a month after the incident was revealed and after weeks of protests by activists here.In late May, 22 U.S. servicemen were identified as having possibly come into contact with the lethal bacteria “inadvertently” sent to Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province by a military laboratory in Utah. Though the U.

Seoul and Washington will likely come to a “crucial agreement” on North Korea during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the U.S. capital later this year to help shift the regime’s strategic calculations and expedite progress in their nuclear talks, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Thursday. South Korea’s top diplomat also called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to seize a “golden opportunity” to tackle persistent international concerns over his revisionist views through a statement to be

Seoul promotes Tokyo’s acknowledgement online

Less than a day after South Korea and Japan clinched a breakthrough on Tokyo’s UNESCO World Heritage bid, tension is brewing again as Japan attempts to water down its statement on the use of forced Korean labor during the colonial period. Twenty-three Japanese wartime industrial facilities were listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites Sunday, following a compromise that Tokyo stipulates that it forced Koreans to work at some of them and plans to honor them in the final document. In a footnote enshr

Japan’s major wartime industrial facilities were listed as World Heritage sites on Sunday, with Tokyo conceding forced labor and other cruelties against Koreans for the first time on the world stage and vowing measures to commemorate the victims. The decision made at a World Heritage Committee conference in Bonn, Germany, marked a breakthrough between South Korea and Japan following grueling two-month negotiations over how to address the appalling chapter of the archipelago country’s history tha

The Chinese Embassy donated 10,000 books to Seoul National University on Tuesday, fulfilling a pledge made by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited Korea last July. The donation, which also includes some 750 DVDs, covers traditional Chinese culture, philosophy, history, law, literature, ethics and medicine, as well as books on imperial Japan’s war crimes, ancient Korean history and the ethnic Chinese in Korea. Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong. (Joel Lee/The Korea Herald)In a ceremony at SNU

Violinist Won Hyung-joon (left) and artist Park Gian. (Uky Baek/Ukynepeople)Two Korean artists will stage a performance piece this week in an effort to lift the role of art in society. “Endless Lingering” by violinist Won Hyung-joon and artist Park Gian will be held at the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art from Thursday to Saturday. The performance will feature Won playing J.S. Bach’s “Chaconne,” accompanied by Park’s dance and a movie showing the flowing movement of paint on her painting. The per

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division, a policy expert has published a book that provides suggestions for Korea’s unification strategy based on Northern Ireland’s peace process. The Irish Embassy on Tuesday hosted Dr. Kim Jung-ro, the director of the Settlement Support Center for North Korean Refugees, for his new book “The Irish Peace Process.” (From left) Author Kim Jung-ro, Irish Ambassador Alngeal O'Donoghue and former Korean Ambassador to the U.K. Ra Jong-il pose at a reception

The inaugural gathering of parliamentary leaders from the member countries of MIKTA concluded on Friday, with representatives of South Korea and Mexico meeting on the sidelines of the talks.The meeting between Seoul’s National Assembly Speaker Rep. Chung Ui-hwa and Mexican Senate President Miguel Barbosa Huerta came one day after the representatives from the five MIKTA countries vowed to support efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.Lawmakers from Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and A