South Korea said Tuesday it will work on gaining a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council in 2013-14, saying it can play an important role in the body for international peace and security as a country adjoined with the nuclear-armed North Korea. The council, which currently has five permanent veto-wielding members ― the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is one of the biggest contributions Korea has made to the United Nations over the past two decades, according to Gabon’s permanent representative to the U.N. Noel Nelson Messone.“It’s very important that Korea has given to the U.N. system one of its brightest, most valuable sons,” the Gabonese ambassador said in an interview with The Korea Herald as he was visiting Se

Officials clap during the ground-breaking ceremony for Hanawon, a new settlement training facility for North Korean defectors, in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, Thursday. (Yonhap News)A new resettlement facility for North Korean defectors will open late next year, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Thursday, as ground was broken for the additional building to accommodate and train thousands of North K

Cho Myung-chul, the new chief of the Education Center for Unification, the highest government post to be taken by a North Korean defector, talks in a recent interview with The Korea Herald. (Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald)Defector-turned-official vows to emphasize the positive side of unificationRegardless of the amount of effort South Korea makes to engage its northern rival in talks and reconciliatio

Members of the Grand National Party’s new leadership, including chairman Hong Joon-pyo (second from left, front row), visit the national cemetery in Seoul on Tuesday, a day after the party convention. (Yonhap News)The recent election of Hong Joon-pyo, a non-mainstream lawmaker close to President Lee Myung-bak’s in-house rival, as the new ruling party leader may make Lee an early lame duck, politic

Media office may lead to increased U.S.-North Korea exchangesThe Associated Press said it signed an agreement with Pyongyang on Thursday to become the first Western media to open a permanent news bureau in the reclusive state, a move that may lead to increased Washington-North Korea exchanges. The memorandum of understanding agreed by the AP and the North’s official Korean Central News Agency “wou

The two Koreas held a rare meeting over a stalled joint tourism project at the North’s mountain resort, but little was discussed due to North Korean officials’ careless attitude, Seoul officials said Wednesday.Twelve government officials and company representatives from Seoul returned to the South Korean side, crossing the heavily fortified border Wednesday afternoon after holding brief talks with