Senior defense officials from South Korea and the United States met Tuesday for annual talks expected to center on strengthening deterrence against North Korean threats and other issues facing the two allies.The Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue is one of a series of defense dialogues between Seoul and Washington and involves defense and foreign affairs officials. South Korea was represented by Deputy Defense Minister Yoo Jeh-seung, while his counterpart was Deputy Assistant Secretary of De

South Korea will send $500,000 in humanitarian aid to Yemen as it struggles with a civil war, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.South Korea will deliver the aid through the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross, it said.The chaos in Yemen comes as Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Gulf Arab nations have launched air strikes against Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, after they ousted Yemen's government and dissolved the parl

An exit ban has been lifted for a Japanese reporter on trial here for defaming President Park Geun-hye, prosecutors said Tuesday.Tatsuya Kato had been prohibited from leaving South Korea since August pending a trial for libel.The former Seoul bureau chief for Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper is accused of defaming Park by reporting rumors that she might have been with a man at the time of the April 16 South Korean ferry sinking, one of South Korea's worst peacetime disasters.The Seoul Central Di

South Korea and Japan held their first high-level security talks in more than five years Tuesday amid renewed tension over historical and territorial issues.The so-called 2+2 talks, involving two senior foreign affairs and defense officials from each side, came as bilateral ties have been badly frayed over Tokyo's repeated claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo and other issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. A key focus of attention was on how S

The United States is expected to continue to ban South Korea from nuclear reprocessing and enrichment under a soon-to-be-announced nuclear cooperation agreement but is expected to allow Seoul to conduct a kind of experimental reprocessing for research purposes, U.S. experts said Monday. After more than four years of negotiations, Seoul and Washington are now close to announcing a revision to their 1974 nuclear energy cooperation pact, known as the "123 agreement." The agreement has centered on b

South Korea's commerce minister promised enhanced support for Japanese investors here Tuesday, also vowing to continue removing any red tape hindering investment.In a Seoul meeting with members of the Seoul Japan Club, Yoon Sang-jick also praised the efforts of local and Japanese businesspeople here to help improve economic and trade conditions between the two neighboring countries, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."The minister said his government will continue to improve

South Korea, Japan and China on Monday vowed to further boost their cooperation in dealing with issues related to water while agreeing to share their knowledge with others to help them overcome such problems.The agreement came at a ministerial meeting held on the sidelines of the 7th World Water Forum in South Korea's southeastern cities of Daegu and Gyeongju.The meeting involved South Korea's minister of land, infrastructure and transport, Japan's transport and tourism minister, and China's min

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will meet with a visiting top United Nations official Monday on regional security and global issues, the foreign ministry said.Yun plans to hold a bilateral meeting with U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson at his office for consultations on the 2015 Development Agenda and peacekeeping operations as well as the North Korean nuclear issue and security conditions on the Korean Peninsula, according to the ministry."As the U.N. marks the 70th anniversary of its bi

South Korea has no immediate plan to push for a military acquisition pact with Japan although it could be necessary in the long term, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday. The Japanese daily Nikkei reported on Sunday that Tokyo is gearing up to sign the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement with South Korea in a move to strengthen security ties with the neighbor.   "(South Korea) has not discussed the issue of signing the ACSA with Japan recently and has no such plan for now," defense minist

The United States on Sunday strongly condemned a recent armed attack on the South Korean Embassy in Libya that left two local security guards killed and another wounded."We condemn in the strongest terms the attack on the Republic of Korea's Embassy in Tripoli on April 12," a State Department spokesperson said in response to the Yonhap News Agency's request for comment. "We send our condolences to the families of the victims."Militants claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State said they w

Rattled by a shooting attack on its embassy in Libya, South Korea will convene an interagency meeting Monday to assess the situation and discuss ways to protect its nationals there, an official said.Gunmen opened fire on the embassy in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday, killing two local security guards and wounding another. There were no South Korean casualties.Militants claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State said they were behind the attack."The government plans to hold a meeti

An armed group of Islamic militants attacked South Korea's embassy in Libya on Sunday, killing at least one guard, Seoul's foreign ministry said.  The ministry said that the unknown armed group in a car fired at the front of the embassy compound.  "There are no reported casualties of South Korean nationals," said an official.  China's Xinhua News Agency reported that the incident was committed by the Islamic State while the motive was not known. Xinhua also said the attack killed two guards and

South Korea said Sunday that its 24-member Ebola response team has completed a three-month mission to treat patients in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone.  South Korea sent a team of doctors and nurses in three batches between late December and March to join the global community's move to fight the highly contagious disease in West Africa.  South Korea's foreign ministry said that the mission has been officially completed as the final group of medical staff members on Sunday were released after a 21-day-lo

Panama City (AFP) – U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro shook hands and sat near each other at a historic Summit of the Americas, a new milestone in efforts to shed decades of animosity.Obama and Castro greeted each other as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon looked on, before taking their seats with other regional leaders at a Panama City convention center.The sight of Obama and Castro in the same room instantly became a potent symbol of their bid to renew diplomatic ties that were severed i

A Chinese state-run newspaper warned Friday that bilateral ties between Seoul and Beijing would be "shattered" if an advanced U.S. missile-defense system is deployed in South Korea. The Global Times made the comments in an editorial on the day when U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was in South Korea, a visit that is aimed at bolstering America's diplomatic and military rebalancing to Asia. In Seoul, Carter told reporters that the U.S. is not yet ready to discuss with South Korea the possible