About 50 Ecuadorian youths enrolled in universities from around the country took part in a seminar that was equal parts academic orientation and workshop on life in South Korea at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Seoul on Saturday.The seminar, dubbed “Superior Education, Culture and Academic Life in Korea,” saw students from as far as Busan travel to the capital city to participate. Ecuadorian youths enrolled in such schools as Seoul National University; Yeungnam University in Gyeongsan City, North Gye

The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned North Korea‘s latest ballistic missile tests and agreed to quickly consult on an appropriate response, its rotating president said.“Security Council members condemn this launch as a violation of Security Council resolutions,” Luxembourg’s ambassador Sylvie Lucas told reporters after a closed-door debate of less than an hour.The condemnation did not amount to a formal statement from the 15-member council. Instead Lucas said members had requested that

South Korea lambasted the Japanese education minister Thursday for distancing his government from Tokyo's past apologies for its wartime atrocities, calling on him to refrain from such remarks in future.Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura reportedly told a parliamentary meeting Wednesday that the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement do not constitute a unified government view as they were not adopted by the parliament. The remarks appear to be in denial of the two landmark apologies Japan

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will make a state visit to Korea from April 8-9 to hold talks with President Park Geun-hye and to sign a free-trade agreement between the two countries, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday.The upcoming trip marks Abbott’s first official visit to Korea since he took office in September last year. The two leaders will hold talks on April 8 to discuss a wide range of issues including political, business and cultural cooperation. The two held their first summit in Octobe

The United States has called the "comfort women program" Japan's systematic enslavement of women for sexual purposes, according to a U.S. government report.The description was included in a final report to the U.S. Congress by the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group in 2007.In 2000, Samuel Berger, then National Security Adviser to President Bill Clinton, directed agencies to locate records held by the U.S. government relating to war crimes committed

South Korea has joined hands with Japan and the European Union in drafting a resolution on North Korea's human rights situation, calling on the United Nations to refer the case to an "appropriate" international justice mechanism, officials here said Tuesday.The resolution led by Japan and the EU was presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Sunday, with member states working on details for possible revisions.It condemned the communist country "in the strongest terms" for its "systematic, wid

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye met bilaterally with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday and discussed ways to expand economic cooperation and exchanges between the two countries, her office said.The meeting took place in The Hague on the sidelines of a global leaders' summit on anti-nuclear terrorism opening later Monday for a two-day run. South Korea hosted the biennial Nuclear Security Summit in 2012 that was initiated by U.S. President Barack Oba

The Foreign Ministry said Sunday it will dispatch a group of officials to the consulate-general in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao to look into allegations that a consul there failed to pay after having sex with prostitutes. In a complaint made Saturday by a former local hire, part of the mission’s budget is allegedly misused for unintended purposes, while the consul-general has been pocketing some of funds allotted for public events. The ministry said it will launch an investigation on the