North Korea bashed the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s North Korea policy, likening the “audacious plan” which offers economic benefits in exchange for denuclearization as rehashed “trash” on Sunday. The Tongil Shinbo, a weekly North Korean publication, said Yoon’s “audacious plan” to offer significant economic benefits to the North if it abandons its nuclear program is only rehashing former pres...

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin relayed concerns on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to his Russian counterpart Surgey Lavrov at a multilateral summit on Friday. Attending the East Asian Summit held as part of the series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Park spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for some six ...

South Korea has been reelected to Group B (major investors) of the Council of the International Seabed Authority for the fifth consecutive year, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Friday. In the election during the 27th session of the ISA Assembly held in Jamaica on Thursday, South Korea was chosen for Group B, in which countries lead the process of drawing up main policies for the a...

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will make his first official visit to China and meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, next week, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday. Park will be traveling to Qingdao, Shandong province, from Monday to Wednesday, according to the Foreign Ministry. The trip has been coordinated upon an invitation from the Chinese foreign minister. In their planned t...

One-on-one On the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings, Park held a bilateral talks with Hayashi, the Japanese foreign minister, which lasted for about 30 minutes. It was the second time the two top diplomats met one-on-one since Park was inaugurated in May. With their meeting coming at a time when the two countries are struggling to mend ties over a historical dispute, they exchanged opinions on h...

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin were to take off for Cambodia on Wednesday to attend a series of annual meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, during which he will present South Korea’s diplomatic goals and reaffirm its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. During the multilateral meetings, which are set to take place over two days starting Thurs...

North Korea lashed out at South Korea’s appointment of an ambassador-at-large on North Korean human rights issues on Wednesday, calling it “Seoul’s vicious political provocation to battle with Pyongyang until the end.” North Korea’s propaganda radio station Echo of Unification strongly criticized the South, as Seoul has recently appointed Lee Shin-wha, an international relations professor at Kor...

South Korea‘s Foreign Ministry is keeping a watchful eye on the escalating tensions between the United States and China as the US House speaker is reportedly expected to visit Taiwan, a ministry official said Tuesday. Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker is reportedly planning to visit Taiwan as part of her Asian tour, despite warnings from China, which views the official American contact with Tai...

South Korea strongly condemned the North for “abusing” the Non-Proliferation Treaty to openly develop nuclear weapons and urged the regime to return to dialogue for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization during international nuclear arms talks. Addressing the 10th NPT Review Conference held at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Korean Deputy Minister for Multilateral and ...

K-pop sensation BTS may be able to practice and hold overseas concerts while serving in the military, as South Korea’s Defense Ministry appears to be considering “alternative service” for the boy group. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said during a parliamentary session on Monday that he is considering a series of options for alternative military service for BTS, such as providing the...

A solution for mutual benefit? While the previous Moon Jae-in administration held a victim-centered approach to the top court’s ruling and refrained from intervening in the issue, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has been actively seeking ways to resolve the dispute to prevent the liquidation of the Japanese firms’ assets. Making his first official trip to Japan in July, South Korean Foreign Mi...

As China appears to relay stronger words to express its discomfort against Seoul’s diplomacy plans largely aligning with the United States, eyes are on how the Yoon Suk-yeol administration will navigate its way through the US-China rivalry. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday demanded the Yoon administration, which was inaugurated in May, to up hold the previous government’s China policy o...

North Korea appears to be ratcheting up efforts to strengthen its power grip on the young, as it celebrated the anniversary of the Korean War armistice signed in 1953. In an editorial, Pyongyang’s state-run daily Rodong Sinmun urged young people to learn from their predecessors, highlighting the value of patriotism as the North celebrated the 69th anniversary of the signing of the armistice on W...

South Korea condemned Myanmar military regime’s latest execution of democracy activists, issuing a joint statement with top diplomats from the United States and seven other countries on Tuesday. On Monday, Myanmar’s ruling military said it had executed four democracy activists accused of committing “terror acts.” The activists were sentenced to death in secretive trials in January and April for ...

As the United States is seeking to include South Korea in a chip alliance it is planning to form, eyes are on whether Seoul would again join US’ apparent effort to strategically isolate its rival China in the semiconductor supply chain. The US first made the proposal to South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to establish a strategic alliance of global chip powerhouses in March. While the envisioned allia...