South Korea has practically lowered its goal of future overseas development aid due to budget constraints, the foreign ministry said Friday. The government has vowed to increase its official development assistance (ODA) level to 0.25 percent of the country's gross national income (GNI) by 2015 as part of efforts to give back after receiving help from the international community to rebuild its economy following the 1950-53 Korean War. Under the plan set up in 2010, the government has annually inc

Parliament increases budget for sovereignty campaign next year

South Korea on Thursday expressed its willingness to render financial and other support for Syria to rebuild its economy devastated by a civil war that has raged for more than two and a half years.South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se was responding to a call for international help by the leader of the Syrian opposition forces during an international meeting in Seoul.The Seoul meeting, the third of its kind called by the Working Group on Economic Recovery and Development for Syria, brought

South Korea and the United States on Wednesday resumed negotiations on the sharing of the cost for stationing American troops here, with both sides seen as nearing an agreement on the prickly issue.The talks to renew the Special Measure Agreement, which kicked off a day earlier, are expected to last more than two days as the allies are committed to renew the pact on splitting the burden of financing United States Forces Korea, government sources said.Time is ticking for the two allies to come up

South Korea is preparing to hold high-level talks with the United States this month on major issues of mutual concern, including North Korea and tensions among regional powers, a diplomatic source said Sunday. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun plans to visit Washington in mid-December for the strategic dialogue with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, said the source.It would be their first one-on-one meeting since Kim's visit here in June.To be mainly discussed are ways to restart the si

Romanian Ambassador to South Korea Calin Fabian hosted a concert and reception celebrating Great Union Day, his country’s national day, in Seoul on Tuesday.The highlight of the event was a concert by renowned violinist Alexandru Tomescu, who performed a solo on a Stradivarius violin that belongs to the Romanian government.The violin belonged to Ion Voicu, a well-known Romanian violinist and conductor, and his family donated it to the Romanian government. Some Stradivari ― violins, cellos and oth

Political turmoil back home overshadowed Thai Ambassador to South Korea Kittiphong na Ranong’s celebration this year of the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Seoul on Tuesday.The monarch’s birthday is also Thailand’s National Day, which is celebrated in Thailand on Dec. 5. But the king has suffered from poor health for years. It is health could have a huge impact on the outcome of the current crisis, and the current political strife in Thailand was on everyone’s mind at the reception.T

A battalion of inventors brought their new ideas to this year’s Seoul International Invention Fair at Coex from Dec. 12.As many as 135 inventors and more than 170 products from the Southeast Asian nation arrived in Seoul to show that Malaysia has creative new products for the South Korean public, according to MATRADE, the Malaysian Embassy’s trade arm here in South Korea.One invention was the “U9 Xylophone,” a traditional Malaysian instrument simplified so children can easily learn to play it.Un

Amid a series of public assassinations in North Korea where leader Kim Jong-un is seeking to consolidate his power, China has once agin vowed to show support in resolving Pyongyang's nuclear issue.Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said he would make aggressive efforts to address North Korea's reticence to denuclearize, and also expressed support for his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye's North Korea policy.Xi made the remarks when South Korea's visiting National Assembly Speaker Kang