Incoming leader Park Geun-hye plans to set up a new presidential body to serve as a nerve center for crisis management and diplomatic and defense policies in order to better cope with North Korean threats and the fast-changing security environment. Her aides said the national security bureau will be installed at Cheong Wa Dae and led by a Cabinet-level official, who will be not only the chief security adviser to the president but also the top channel for long-term strategy planning, inter-agency

President-elect Park Geun-hye on Monday called for cooperation from Britain and France to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programs and build trust with Seoul and the international community. She met with ambassadors from the two European and nine Southeast Asian nations in her office in downtown Seoul. “It is very difficult now for a nation to develop without working together with the international community as its responsible member. I hope to see North Korea choose that path and ch

When Kathleen Stephens came to Seoul in 2008 as U.S. ambassador, she started blogging about the host country in the local language and under her Korean name. She loved its traditional food and biking around the country. In one summer, she even went down to Jeju Island to pick abalones and octopuses along with female divers there.After three years, she had become one of the most beloved Americans here. Her approachability, professional enthusiasm and command of the local language have made many K

Despite lingering furor over North Korea’s recent rocket launch, a high-profile U.S. delegation’s visit is seen to give a boost to its leader Kim Jong-un’s budding peace offensive. Google chairman Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson landed in Pyongyang late Monday for a four-day stay, dismissing Washington’s discontent about the timing. On Tuesday, they visited the elite Kim Il-sung University in the capital to see how students th

Despite Washington’s discomfort with the timing, Bill Richardson may end up playing troubleshooter for yet another American detainee in North Korea when the former New Mexico governor wraps up his trip to the communist country later this week. This time, he is bringing an even bigger carrot: Google Inc. chairman Eric Schmidt, an apostle of global Internet freedom and its role in lifting people out of poverty and persecution. In the North, precious few of the elite are granted access to the Web.