South Korea's top diplomat has voiced hope that the planned summits with North Korea will produce a "breakthrough" in finding a way toward a peaceful resolution of the North's nuclear and missile issue.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha added in an interview with US broadcasting company PBS on Friday (local time) that South Korea has a "clear" goal of complete denuclearization of North Korea, though she knows that it will take a long time since the weapons program is "very advanced."  "We are very

The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States agreed Friday to maintain close coordination as both nations prepare for summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan at the State Department to discuss recent developments between South and North Korea, and between the US and the North.  US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan (right) shakes hands with visiting Foreign Minister of the Repub

The White House said Friday it continues to have conversations about naming an ambassador to South Korea "soon," a post that has been vacant for more than a year.The most likely candidate, Victor Cha, was withdrawn from consideration earlier this year after reportedly voicing reservations about the administration's considerations of a limited military strike on North Korea. White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short responds to a question during a daily briefing held Friday. (EPA-Yon

British Prime Minister Theresa May was expected to announce retaliatory action against Russia on Wednesday after Moscow rejected her “unfounded accusations” over the poisoning of a Russian former double agent on UK soil.Relations between the two countries have deteriorated rapidly in the 10 days since ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with a nerve agent in sleepy Salisbury, southwest England.The British premier said on Monday it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind

Ivanka Trump, US President Donald Trump’s daughter, is likely to attend the closing ceremony of the upcoming PyeongChang Olympics, CNN reported.　Citing a White House official, CNN reported that Trump, who also serves as her father’s senior adviser, was requested by the US President and the United States Olympic Committee to lead the country’s presidential delegation to South Korea. 　Last month, US President Donald Trump told his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in that the US would be sending a

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday he intends to hold a summit with President Moon Jae-in next month and convey his government’s position on the 2015 “comfort women” agreement. Speaking to reporters, Abe said he intends to visit South Korea next month to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics, as well as to hold the meeting with Moon. It had previously been reported that Abe was unlikely to attend the event due to dispute over the agreement. Japanese Prime Ministe

The Japanese government has officially requested talks with South Korea about the possibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attending the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday."The Japanese Embassy in South Korea made an official request this morning to discuss Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to South Korea," the official told reporters, asking not to be identified.The request follows weeks of speculation t

Beijing has pledged billions of dollars to build new infrastructure in Cambodia, officials said Thursday, as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ended a two-day charm offensive currying favour for its mega-dams across the Mekong.The storied waterway, which twists through parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is the world‘s largest inland fishery and helps feed around 60 million people across its basin.Environmental groups fear the Chinese dams will destroy fish stocks and plunge some of

The European Union’s diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday insisted the Iran nuclear deal “is working”, as US President Donald Trump mulls reimposing sanctions on Tehran.“The deal is working, it is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance,” Mogherini said after talks in Brussels with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his British, French and German counterparts.Senior officials have told AFP they

SRINAGAR, India -- Police say rebels fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir have detonated a bomb and killed four police officials. Police say the massive blast hit Saturday as the officers were patrolling a street in the northwestern town of Sopore.The town is observing a shutdown on the 25th anniversary of a massacre when government forces killed at least 47 people after a paramilitary soldier died in a rebel attack.Blast kills 4 policemen in Indian Kashmir Saturday. (AP-Yonhap)Polic

South Korea will provide an additional $2.6 million in humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya minority group from Myanmar, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. "The government plans to provide the extra humanitarian aid for Rohingya people who moved to Bangladesh in the aftermath of an armed conflict in Myanmar's Rakhine region on Aug. 25," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The assistance will also be spent to provide food for people in the conflict-torn Myanmar region. (Yonhap)The latest ass

HARARE (AFP) -- Robert Mugabe has been removed as president of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and replaced by his former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a party delegate told AFP on Sunday outside a meeting in Harare."A resolution has been adopted to recall the president and elevate Mnangagwa as the party president," said the delegate, who declined to be named.This file photo taken on January 7, 2017 shows Zimbabwe's then acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa speaking during a funeral ceremony

HAVANA (AFP) -- North Korea's foreign minister is to visit Cuba on Monday in a trip that comes at a time when both Pyongyang and Havana have strained relations with Washington. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will meet with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla and participate in other unspecified activities, according to a brief statement late Saturday from Cuba's foreign ministry.The visit comes as Washington and Pyongyang are locked in a dangerous standoff over North Korea's development

TOKYO -- Koichiro Iizuka only knows her as Yaeko-san, a pretty woman smiling in an old photo and in stories told by his relatives. A 16-month-old baby, he was at a childcare center in downtown Tokyo with his 3-year-old sister, waiting to be picked up by their mother. She never returned.Yaeko Taguchi, then 22, was kidnapped by North Korea agents in June 1978, presumably on her way to the nursery from a night job she was working to raise the children as a divorced mother. The baby boy was adopted