A senior US diplomat on Friday stressed South Korea’s “input” in Washington’s ongoing policy review on North Korea, reiterating the importance of close consultations and coordination between the allies in dealing with the reclusive regime. The remarks were made by Sung Kim, acting US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, during his meeting with Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea...

South Korea and the US on Thursday stressed that North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile issues are a “priority” for the alliance, while Washington renewed pressure on Beijing to use its influence to convince Pyongyang to denuclearize. The two allies issued a joint statement detailing the pledge, after the “two-plus-two” talks at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul earlier in the day, which inv...

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with their respective counterparts in Seoul on Wednesday and reaffirmed their alliance as a bulwark against unprecedented challenges posed by Beijing and Pyongyang. The pair arrived in Seoul after a two-day visit in Tokyo, in the first overseas trip by top members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet since his inaugur...

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister, slammed South Korea and the US for conducting joint military exercises and threatened to scrap an inter-Korean military pact Tuesday, a day before high-level US officials are to arrive in Seoul. Kim, who has taken center stage in attacking Seoul and Washington in the past, also sent a direct message to the US for the firs...

The US stressed the importance of the trilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan, as well as between the two neighbors, as the country’s top diplomat embarked on a trip to East Asia amid the rising possibility that Washington could pressure the bickering allies to bury the hatchet and move forward. The State Department released a statement titled “Reaffirming the Unbreakable US-Japan ...

As the Biden administration is conducting its policy review on Pyongyang with a chance of doubling down pressure on the reclusive regime, a former Trump official on North Korea stressed that the pressure in itself is not “sustainable,” but has to be paired with diplomacy to achieve any kind of progress. “Pressure without openness to diplomacy is not sustainable. But diplomacy also on the other h...

The United States will not release any of the Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks under the US sanctions until Tehran complies with the 2015 nuclear deal, raising concern that the standoff between Seoul and Tehran over the locked assets may be prolonged. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the remark Wednesday (US time) at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, when he was as...

South Korea has agreed to pay 13.9 percent more in its contribution to host American troops here for 2021, the Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday. Under the new six-year accord, Seoul will pay 1.183 trillion won ($1.04 billion) this year for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea. The 13.9 percent hike from the previous 2019 deal represents the biggest annual rise for Seoul in nearly ...

With South Korea and the US clinching a new accord on how to share the cost of maintaining the US troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula, the deal has drawn attention to how this arrangement was first forged and how it has transformed over the decades. From the US forces landing in the southern half of the peninsula after World War II to the US-led allies helping South Korea repel an invasi...

South Korea and the US have reached an agreement on how much Seoul should shoulder for hosting US troops here, both countries announced Monday, ending years of standoff over the thorny issue. A major breakthrough to the talks on renewing the Special Measures Agreement, the pact that governs the upkeep of US Forces Korea, came amid three days of face-to-face meetings on Sunday in Washington, l...

South Korea and the United States will stage their annual springtime military exercise this week, but it will be reduced in scope due to the coronavirus pandemic. The allies decided to hold the computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training for nine days starting Monday and ending March 18, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday, after “comprehensively” taking into consideration the “COVID-...

The Korea International Cooperation Agency has broken ground on the first hospital specializing in critical care in Iraq slated for completion in 2023, the state-run overseas aid agency said Thursday. The four-story Iraq-Korea Critical Care Specialty Hospital will be built on a 7,000-square-meter site in the country’s capital, Baghdad, with the KOICA injecting a total of $39.5 million for the pr...

Jeong Eun-bo, South Korea’s chief negotiator for defense cost-sharing talks, raised expectations that a deal with the US will come soon, as he departed for Washington on Thursday for a new round of negotiations. Jeong and his US counterpart, Donna Welton are set for talks in the US capital Friday to negotiate the cost-sharing deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement, the pact that govern...

Lee Yong-soo, one of 15 surviving South Korean “comfort women,” on Wednesday requested a meeting with President Moon Jae-in in order to take the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery to the International Court of Justice for a resolution. The 92-year-old’s request came during her hourlong meeting with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, in what was the minister’s first meeting with a sexual slave...

Japanese authorities are undecided on how and when to discharge radioactive water from the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea or air, amid heightened environmental and public safety concerns from its neighboring countries, including South Korea. “The exact timing on when the government will decide on the method and the period is yet to be decided,” said a Japanese government officia...