Senior diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet this week seeking to chart new ways to rein in North Korea as the communist country appears to be on the verge of another nuclear provocation.The meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Tokyo will bring together chief negotiators on the North Korean nuclear issue to coordinate their responses to evolving nuclear and missile threats posed by North Korea.  (Yonhap)The Donald Trump administration is in the final stage of the formulatio

South Korea voiced its "deep disappointment" on Friday after Japanese politicians paid their respects at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war criminals.Around 90 Japanese lawmakers visited the shrine earlier in the day to mark an annual spring festival, Japan's Kyodo News reported.(Yonhap)They included Seiichi Eto, an aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Abe also sent a ritual offering, the report said. "The (South Korean) government expresses deep concerns and disappointment

South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet next week to discuss their coordinated approach toward North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the foreign ministry here said Friday.Kim Hong-kyun, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry, will meet with his US and Japanese counterparts -- Joseph Yun and Kenji Kanasugi -- in Tokyo on Tuesday, according to the ministry. Kim Hong-kyun (left), South Korea's chief envoy on North

The top diplomats of South Korea and Tanzania will sit down together in Seoul next week to discuss bilateral collaboration on economic issues as well as the North Korean nuclear issue, the foreign ministry here said Thursday.The talks between Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Tanzanian counterpart Augustine P. Mahiga are scheduled for Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. It will be their second meeting in about four months following one held on Dec. 7 in Ethiopia during a regional f

South Korea's foreign minister will attend a United Nations Security Council meeting scheduled for next week to discuss North Korea's nuclear threats and efforts to make the North go nuclear-free, a ministry source said Thursday.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will join the UNSC meeting to be held in New York on April 28 that will focus on North Korea's nuclear stalemate and its denuclearization, the source told Yonhap News Agency. South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (Yonhap)The meeting wi

South Korea, the United States and Japan united on Wednesday in urging China to stop economic retaliation on Seoul in connection with the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system here.Senior defense officials from the three countries made the call at the Defense Trilateral Talks in Tokyo, which focused on their joint response to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.In a joint press statement, they pointed the finger apparently at Beijing for its thinly veiled economic sanctions

WASHINGTON -- The White House sought to fend off criticism Wednesday that President Donald Trump and other top officials have misleadingly said a Navy strike group was heading to the Korean Peninsula to deter North Korea when it was actually moving in the opposite direction.US officials came under fire following revelations that the group of ships led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson were thousands of miles away from Korea despite earlier statements suggesting they would be in the region

South Korea's vice unification minister on Wednesday met with Japan's top envoy to Seoul to discuss North Korea's nuclear and missile problems, government officials said.Vice Minister Kim Hyung-suk held the meeting with Amb. Yasumasa Nagamine to exchange views on security concerns and the importance of cooperation in responding to North Korea's threats, according to Seoul's unification ministry. This photo taken on April 19, 2017, shows Japanese Amb. Yasumasa Nagamine (center) heading to South K

BUSAN -- The Japanese Consulate in the southern South Korean port city of Busan on Wednesday exerted indirect pressure on the city's Dong Ward municipality to remove a statue symbolizing Korean women forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels, officials at the regional government said.Japan's consul general in Busan, Yasuhiro Morimoto held talks with Park Sam-seok, chief of the municipality, earlier in the day as he offered to pay a courtesy call. Morimoto returned along with Japanese

South Korea's foreign ministry on Tuesday called on Japan to refrain from fanning security concerns on the Korean Peninsula, one day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mentioned a contingency plan in the event of a conflict in Korea.In a parliamentary committee session on Monday, Abe said his government is working on contingency plans for a crisis situation on the peninsula, referring to a potential influx of Korean refugees into Japan. A Japanese newspaper's report on the possibility of U.S. attac

WASHINGTON -- A US State Department official said Monday there is no hiccup in the ongoing deployment of a cutting-edge missile defense system in South Korea, dismissing concern about a political setback."There hasn't been any change, and there hasn't certainly been anything about the decision-making process that would indicate any change," Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters in a telephone conference. "So we're on track as far a

The defining axis of global growth over the next 25 years will be the “Indo-Pacific” region, encompassing rising India and Southeast Asia, a renowned political scientist forecast, urging Seoul to harness a future-oriented strategy that involves strengthened cooperation with Australia. As China’s growth falters and India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations amass industrial weight and abundant labor, the world economy’s center of gravity will drift toward the Indo-Pacific, according to

"The expertise of Korean companies that have conquered global markets with their knowledge, skills and fortitude will be a source of information, inspiration and synergy."

Senior defense officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan will have face-to-face talks on North Korea's saber-rattling later this week, a Seoul ministry announced Monday.The regional powers plan to hold the Defense Trilateral Talks in Tokyo on Wednesday, the ninth session of the forum launched in 2008, according to the Ministry of National Defense.An image of three-way defense cooperation among South Korea, the US and Japan against North Korea in this file photo provided by Yonhap N

TOKYO -- Japan on Monday urged the next South Korean government implement a landmark 2015 deal to resolve the long-running rift over Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women as the official campaign period for South Korea's upcoming presidential election began the same day."The two countries promised to implement the December 2015 agreement that was highly esteemed in the international community regardless of the internal affairs (in South Korea)," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshi