Could Korea learn from diplomatic experience in today’s Europe? After all, whilst the economic risers of this world, in Asia and elsewhere, are beaming with confidence and brainstorming about what they can contribute to the new international order, many foreign ministries in the European Union are now depressing places. Once-high-minded diplomats convinced of seemingly eternal Western superiority are licking their wounds, wondering what is left of Europe’s soft power. European diplomatic service

The ruling Saenuri Party late on Friday denounced Ahn Cheol-soo’s renouncement of his presidential bid as “irresponsible,” immediately eyeing moderate votes that had been supporting the former professor.“We regret the resignation of Ahn, who envisions new politics,” Ahn Hyung-hwan, a Saenuri spokesman, said in a statement. “Ahn Cheol-soo’s experimental efforts for political reform appear to have run into the wall of the DUP’s crafty old politics and fallen apart.” The popular software mogul-turn

ULAN BATOR (AFP) ― Senior Japanese and North Korean diplomats resumed rare “tough” talks Friday, with Tokyo expected to press Pyongyang on its kidnapping of Japanese nationals and its arms programme.Japanese negotiator Shinsuke Sugiyama said the two sides held “serious” talks on Thursday in the Mongolian capital.“Although the consultation itself is not an easy matter, both sides have exchanged views sincerely,” Sugiyama told Japanese reporters Thursday night, after a nearly seven-hour session.“T

A group of high-level Chinese officials plan to visit South Korea next week to discuss bilateral cooperation and explain policies under the new leadership, diplomats here said Friday. The six-member delegation, led by Chen Baosheng, vice president of the Communist Party’s Central Party School, will arrive here Tuesday, according to the Chinese embassy in Seoul. Other officials include Han Baojiang, director of the school’s Institute for International Strategic Studies, and Zhao Bingbing, an exec

TOKYO (AP) ― Japan and North Korea have begun bilateral talks in Mongolia that Tokyo hopes will shed light on a series of decades-old abductions.The talks in Ulan Bator are scheduled to last through Friday. In August, lower-level negotiators from the two countries held their first bilateral talks in four years, but made little progress.Japan wants information on the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and `80s. Japan believes at least one abductee may still be ali

The ASEAN-Korea Center began on Monday a seven-week Korean language training session in Bangkok for officials from the Thai tourism, lodging and food and beverage industries to help them better accommodate increasing Korean travelers. The event is part of the institute’s Korean language education program launched early this year to improve communication skills of tourism workers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The participants will take basic courses involving reading, listening a

South Korea will play a key role in devising a new global development cooperation paradigm, and more than double its assistance to developing countries over the next three years, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Tuesday.Speaking during the second session of the Asia-Europe Meeting held in Laos for a two-day run from Monday, Kim stressed the necessity of expanding official development aid despite global economic difficulties, according to his office in Seoul.“Development cooperation is an invest