South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo headed to Vietnam on Wednesday for talks with his counterpart there to explore ways to boost military cooperation, his office said.During his three-day visit, Han is scheduled to meet with Phung Quang Thanh to discuss ways to boost cooperation in the defense field based upon the nations' "strategic cooperation partnership" clinched in 2009, according to Seoul's defense ministry."The two sides will also sign a memorandum of understanding on the bilateral

China warned Tuesday of "instability and uncertainty" on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea's unpredictable regime has claimed breakthroughs in its nuclear and missile capabilities. "The Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia are shrouded in instability and uncertainty," the State Council, the Cabinet of the communist-ruled nation, said in its latest defense policy paper. The 25-page paper did not elaborate on North Korea, but along with an array of security tensions with its neighbors, including

Two suspects in an April attack on the South Korean embassy in Libya have been arrested, Seoul's foreign ministry said, citing information from Libyan police.Libyan police informed South Korea that they have recently caught the militants behind the shooting attack, which killed two local security guards. Another was critically wounded as the gunmen fired more than 40 machine-gun shots toward the guard post in the embassy compound on April 12.The suspects were quoted as telling police that they c

Senior Chinese and Japanese diplomats discussed ways to resume long-stalled talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program, according to China's foreign ministry on Tuesday. Wu Dawei, China's chief envoy to the six-party talks, held talks with his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, on Monday in Beijing during which they exchanged views on resumption of the talks with North Korea, the Chinese ministry said in a brief statement. The meeting between Wu and Ihara came as the U.S.

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy will visit China this week after talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts on ways to deal with North Korea, the foreign ministry said Monday.Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, plans to meet with China's top nuclear negotiator, Wu Dawei, in Beijing during his two-day trip there starting Thursday.Hwang is scheduled to hold trilateral talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in Seoul with Sung Kim, the U.S. special r

An international tribunal has wrapped up the first round of hearings in a multi-billion-dollar case the U.S. private equity firm Lone Star filed against South Korea over disputes surrounding its asset sell-offs in Korea.Both sides largely repeated their existing positions during the hearings that began on May 15 and were wound up Saturday at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, sources said. "I heard that our government team did its best and offered good

A U.S. congressman has introduced a resolution calling for a memorial marker honoring American servicemembers killed or missing in action while helping defend South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War.Rep. William Keating introduced the concurrent resolution on Thursday, saying many servicemembers have died or been wounded in Korea as a result of hostile fire from North Korea in what is known to their families as the "DMZ War" or the "Forgotten War of the Forgotten War." The DMZ is short for the

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Ethiopians have started voting in national and regional elections, the country's first since the death in 2012 of longtime leader Meles Zenawi.More than 38 million voters are eligible to cast ballots in this East African nation of about 90 million people. Hailemariam Desalegn, a former university professor turned politician, has been leading the country since the death of Meles, who built the ruling coalition into a powerful political organization while opposition g

BEIJING (AP) -- The death toll in China's latest round of flooding has risen to at least 52, including two schoolchildren aboard a bus carrying more than twice its authorized passenger load that plunged into a pond, authorities said. At least six other people are missing in floods that have ravaged mountain districts of six provinces and autonomous regions in central and southeastern China. More than a quarter-million people have been moved to temporary shelters, and major damage has been inflic

RIYADH, (AFP) -- Saudi Arabia on Saturday confirmed the suicide bomber who killed 21 worshippers at a Shiite mosque had links with the Islamic State group, in what the interior ministry called an attempt to promote sectarian strife.It was the deadliest attack in years to strike the Sunni-dominated kingdom, and marked the first time the jihadist IS group officially claimed an attack in Saudi Arabia."His name was Salih bin Abdulrahman Salih al-Ghishaami, a Saudi national,"  the interior ministry s

A group of foreign activists who planned to cross the inter-Korean border southward from North Korea has decided to use a western land route instead of the truce village of Panmunjom, officials said Friday.  About 30 female activists from around the world, including U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, planning to march from the North to the South across the Demilitarized Zone to deliver a message of peace on May 24. A lega

South Korea Thursday committed millions of dollars to equip classrooms in three African countries with information technology.  Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea signed a memorandum of understanding with Irina Bokova, secretary-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, stating that South Korea would contribute US$6 million to UNESCO.  The donation will go toward training teachers in Rwanda, Mozambique and Zimbabwe on how to use information and communication

The United States is considering permanently stationing a THAAD missile defense unit in South Korea to help defend against North Korean threats, even though no final decision has been made, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.  Frank Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, made the remark during a security seminar, stressing THAAD is a purely defense system and poses no threat to other countries in the region.  "Although we're considering the permanent s