WASHINGTON -- The United States may discuss deploying additional missile defense units to South Korea if requested by Seoul's incoming administration, a state department spokesperson said Wednesday. The remarks come after North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday (Seoul time), marking its 14th known show of force this year. "Every country has the inherent right to self-defense," Ned...

WASHINGTON -- The threat posed by North Korea continues to increase with each missile test North Korea stages, a Pentagon spokesperson said Wednesday, urging the recalcitrant country to halt its provocations and engage in dialogue. John Kirby reiterated it would be foolish not to think the North's missile capabilities are increasing. "We would agree that the threat from North Korea continues to...

South Korea is considering boosting assistance to Ukraine, Seoul's top trade official said Wednesday, as Western countries provided weapons and other support to help Ukraine defend against the Russian invasion. South Korea has provided $40 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, 65 non-lethal military items and various support for Ukraine refugees. "We are considering continuing to expan...

The United States plans to boost its deterrence against China and North Korea, partly by increasing its "prepositioned stocks" of military supplies in the Indo-Pacific, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday. The US defense chief also said the defense department plans to spend some $6 billion in fiscal year 2023 to boost its deterrence posture in the Indo-Pacific. "So this budget inve...

S.Korea envoy calls for China to play a ‘constructive role’ in bringing N.Korea back to dialogue table

The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China met in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss security situations on the Korean Peninsula amid concerns about North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats. Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, was on his first visit to Seoul since assuming the post in April 2021 at a time of heightened tensions over Pyongyang's re...

WASHINGTON -- The US-South Korea alliance is an incredibly important relationship that is vital to many issues in the region and around the world, a White House spokesperson said Monday of reasons for President Joe Biden's planned trip to Seoul. Jen Psaki also noted North Korea will be a "prominent part" of the agenda for Biden's upcoming trip that will also take him to Japan. "I would note tha...

WASHINGTON -- The United States is continuing to closely monitor North Korea for signs of additional provocations while sharing such intelligence with South Korea, a US Department of Defense spokesperson said Monday. John Kirby said the US is also always looking for ways to get better information about the reclusive country. US Indo-Pacific Command was ordered to intensify its intelligence, sur...

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine -- A long-awaited evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was under way Sunday, as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she visited Ukraine's president to show unflinching American support for the country's defense against Russia's invasion. Video posted online by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with sma...

South Korea and Norway kicked off annual three-day talks on defense industry cooperation in Seoul on Monday, the state arms procurement agency here said, as Seoul seeks to support local companies' efforts to tap into the European country's market. The two sides began the ninth session of their joint committee on arms industry cooperation, with their agenda including South Korea's bid to export K...

South Korea's top envoy to Ukraine and some other embassy staff have returned to Kyiv to restart operations there, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. South Korean embassy officials had evacuated from the capital and worked at a temporary office in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi since March following Russia's invasion of the country. Amb. Kim Hyung-tae and some embassy staff have returned ...

China's top nuclear envoy on Sunday arrived in Seoul for talks with his South Korean counterpart, amid lingering tensions caused by North Korean missile launches and hardening rhetoric. Liu Xiaoming, special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, told reporters that he will meet officials of the incumbent and incoming Korean governments to discuss "political solutions" for Korean peninsula ...

Park Eun-sik, director general of international affairs bureau at the Korea Forest Service, said “(The government) has put its utmost efforts into the congress over the last two years, for which the country may not get another chance to host at another time.” This year‘s congress is anticipated to be the largest ever, with the participation of around 10,000 people, including government officials...

South Korea's incoming administration will strive to establish a system for the two Koreas and the United States to have dialogue anytime through a liaison office at the truce village of Panmunjom or Washington, D.C., the nominee to become Seoul's top diplomat said Saturday. In a written report to lawmakers ahead of his confirmation hearing, Park Jin pointed out that the three nations are "core ...

South Korea will reopen its embassy in Kyiv shortly amid stabilizing situations in the Ukrainian capital, the foreign ministry said Friday. South Korean embassy officials were evacuated from Kyiv in mid-February and operated temporary offices in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Chernivtsi, and Romania. The Lviv mission was closed on March 18. The ministry said embassy officials will return to K...