Apparently walking a tightrope between its two key regional allies -- South Korea and Japan, the Obama administration continued efforts Monday not to be drawn into a brewing controversy over Tokyo's move to expand its military role.Japan's conservative Abe government is working to change the interpretation of the pacifist Constitution to allow the nation to exercise the right to "collective self-defense."It would allow Japan, long restricted to self-defense, to use force against a military attac

Almost 1,500 Koreans were forced to work for what are now some of Japan‘s largest conglomerates during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula on Russia’s far eastern island of Sakhalin, a government report showed Monday.The report, drawn up by a government committee tasked with supporting victims of forced labor during Japan‘s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula, showed that 1,469 Koreans were forced to work at plants belonging to the Japanese firms now known as Mitsubishi a

The South Korean government has requested a reply from the United States on whether South Korea was one of the 35 countries whose leaders were reportedly wiretapped by the U.S. intelligence agency, an official said Sunday.“We are checking with the U.S. side for verification,” the government official said. “The government is closely following the issue and is determined to respond strictly.” The official said Seoul has not yet received any answer from the U.S. The British daily the Guardian had p

South Korea seeks to procure 112 units of advanced U.S. patriot missiles worth $404 million as part of efforts to establish its own air defense system to deter North Korea’s increasing missile threats. To be launched in the early 2020s, the Korea Air and Missile Defense program is a low-tier, multiple-interception shield designed to strike incoming missiles at an altitude of 40-50 kilometers.The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified Congress on Friday that Seoul sounded out t

The Foreign Ministry came under fire Sunday for unauthorized use of clips from Japanese broadcaster NHK in its promotional video on the Dokdo islets. The ministry removed the 12-minute video last Friday from its website and YouTube as the public broadcaster complained that the film uses without permission some 10-second scenes from its 2011 drama depicting the Russo-Japanese war. The promotional piece was created by a private contractor. Ministry officials said they plan to upload it again after

Top nuclear negotiators of South Korea and the U.S. plan to meet early next month in Washington to discuss ways to achieve progress on ending North Korea’s nuclear program through long-stalled dialogue. Cho Tae-yong, the Foreign Ministry’s special representative for Korea peninsula peace and security affairs, is to have talks with Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, as early as in the first week of November. The exact schedule will be finalized shortly, ministry offi

The chairman of Pakistan’s Senate, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, discussed upgrading bilateral ties through legislative exchanges in a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee in Seoul on Tuesday, during a four-day visit here.Bokhari said direct interaction between lawmakers of the two countries could help generate better understanding and cement stronger ties, during an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on Tuesday. Bokhari led the five-member delegation from the upper chamber

North Korea has undertaken new work to make two new tunnel entrances at its nuclear test site in an apparent effort to prepare for future underground detonations, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday, citing satellite imagery. Commercial aerial photos from Sept. 27 suggest continued excavation in the western part of the Punggye site, where the communist state detonated fission bombs in 2009 and February this year, according to the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Internationa

BEIJING (Yonhap News) -- South Korea plans to forge closer diplomatic cooperation with China to jointly counter reinforced Japanese moves to lay claims to Seoul's easternmost islets of Dokdo, the South Korean ambassador in Beijing said Saturday.Ambassador Kwon Young-se made the remarks at an annual parliamentary audit on the embassy as Japan is stepping up its global PR campaign for its assertions of sovereignty over Dokdo.China is also in an acute territorial dispute with Japan over a set of is