US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set to arrive in Seoul on Monday for talks with his South Korean counterpart over deterrence against North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and other security issues, officials here said. His trip comes as Seoul and Washington are striving to sharpen deterrence through reinforced combined military drills as well as their trilateral security coordination wi...

North Korea on Monday denounced a visit to South Korea by the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a "prelude" to war, saying the move could bring a "new Cold War" to the Asia-Pacific region. In an article carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Tong-myong, a researcher of the North's organization on international political study, said NATO Secretary General...

North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that North Korean support of Russia in the war in Ukraine reinforces the need for the rest of the world to stay "interconnected" in their security efforts. Stoltenberg made the remark in his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in Seoul. "I think that in a more unpredictable and uncertain world, it'...

Foreign Minister Park Jin and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday discussed jointly working on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and bolstering ties between the Asian country and the 30-member military alliance. The meeting comes as President Yoon Suk Yeol looks to enlist help from European countries in combatting an increasingly belligerent North Korea, which fired off a rec...

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would welcome any future opportunity to engage with his South Korean counterpart, a state department spokesperson said Thursday. Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the state department, however, said he had nothing to announce when asked about a possible meeting between Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in Washingto...

Foreign Minister Park Jin is set to hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early February, sources said Thursday, as the two allies step up efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and resolve a trade dispute involving US tax rules that its allies say favor locally made electric vehicles. The Foreign Ministry said details like exact dates and agendas were under debate, wi...

President Yoon Suk Yeol plans to hold meetings next week with Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a presidential official said Thursday. The NATO chief and the US defense secretary are set to visit Seoul next week, and the presidential office is making arrangements for meetings with Yoon, the official told Yonha...

WASHINGTON-- The United States may consider appointing a special envoy solely dedicated to issues related to North Korea should there be active dialogue with the reclusive country, a state department spokesperson said Tuesday. The department spokesperson, Ned Price, also underscored Pyongyang continued disregard for US overtures as a reason for Sung Kim concurrently serving as special envoy for ...

A second attempt by Japan to seek a UNESCO World Heritage List designation for a 400-year-old gold mine that South Korea says forced Koreans into labor during World War II is casting a shadow over current bilateral talks underway to resolve the dispute. Tokyo formally refiled a request Friday to obtain recognition for its Sado Island mine, omitting the history of Koreans forced to work at what w...

WASHINGTON-- A resolution has been proposed in the US House of Representatives calling for the return of a US Navy ship seized by North Korea 55 years ago, a summary of the resolution showed Monday. The resolution, introduced last week by Rep. Steube Gregory, calls for the return of USS Pueblo while denouncing North Korea's seizure of the ship and its crew on Jan. 23, 1968. The House "maintains...

WASHINGTON-- The United States and South Korea regularly discuss ways to address threats posed by North Korea, including its support for Russia's war against Ukraine, a state department spokesperson said Monday. State Department Press Secretary Ned Price also said the US will continue to use all available means to hold accountable those that support Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. "It's fair t...

After roughly a four-year struggle, South Korea and Japan are nearing a compromise on making amends to Koreans forced into labor by Japanese companies during World War II. The dispute -- which Seoul’s top court said in October 2018 was Tokyo’s fault -- strained bilateral ties as Japan refused to honor the ruling and pay damages to the victims. Tokyo claims a 1965 treaty that normalized relations ...

The South Korean foreign ministry said Monday that no Korean injuries or deaths have been reported from the deadly mass shooting in California that claimed 10 lives. "No Korean damage has been reported to the Korean Embassy or local Korean communities so far," the ministry said. "We will make constant efforts to keep close tabs on the incident in cooperation with the Los Angeles authorities." A...

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Japanese diplomat on Friday over Japan’s repeated attempt to recognize gold and silver mines on the island of Sado, where Koreans were forced to work during World War II, as a World Heritage site. “The Korean government regrets that the Japanese government resubmitted the nomination of ‘Sado Island Gold Mines,’ for the inscription on the UNESCO Wo...

A publisher of a leading academic journal has rejected a request to retract a controversial paper, which claimed that “comfort women” were voluntary prostitutes, although historians have agreed that suggested evidence does not overturn historical consensus that Korean women were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at...