Lack of weaponry support leaves Seoul, Tokyo off list

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s policy consultation delegation met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and agreed to make joint efforts to enhance ties between the two countries, the chief delegate said Tuesday. Rep. Chung Jin-suk of the conservative People Power Party, who is leading the seven-member delegation to Japan, said the two sides had exchanged opinions on improving the bilatera...

WASHINGTON -- Two individuals have been indicted for teaching North Koreans how to evade US sanctions using cryptocurrency, the US justice department revealed Monday. The department said one Spaniard and one British national have been charged in the Southern District of New York with "conspiring to violate US sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," referring to North Kore...

WASHINGTON -- Religious freedom conditions in North Korea remain among the worst in the world, a US government commission said Monday, recommending the US government to designate North Korea as a country of particular concern. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also called on the state department to bring up human rights issues when negotiating security issues with Nor...

Foreign Minister nominee Park Jin ‘welcomes’ Japanese prime minister to attend inauguration

PARIS -- Young, pro-European and unfailingly ambitious, Emmanuel Macron is the first French president to serve a second term in 20 years, giving him a historic opportunity to leave his mark. The 44-year-old, who came to power as France's youngest ever president, secured victory promising more pro-business and welfare reforms but with a "new method" that is expected to be less top-down. He had b...

Thorny issues regarding wartime history and trade remain unresolved between Seoul-Tokyo

The United States’ approval rating in South Korea jumped at one of the steepest rates among Asian countries in 2021, a poll showed Friday. The approval rating of U.S. leadership in South Korea climbed to 59 percent last year from 30 percent a year earlier, according to Gallup. The increase marks the second highest among 33 Asian countries where the poll was conducted between April 2021 and Janu...

South Korea's foreign ministry said Friday that it is ascertaining the veracity of intelligence that at least one of its nationals participating in the Ukraine war as a volunteer fighter has died. Currently, four South Korean nationals are known to have entered Ukraine without government authorization to join the war, the ministry said. "The government recently obtained intelligence from releva...

TOKYO -- Japan's foreign ministry reiterated its assertion that Dokdo, a set of rocky islets in the East Sea, belong to the country in its first annual report on foreign policy and activities under the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The claim, strongly disputed by South Korea that has long maintained effective control of Dokdo with the permanent stationing of security personnel ...

WASHINGTON -- The United States is seeking to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula but only through dialogue and diplomacy, a Department of State spokesperson said Thursday. Ned Price, however, reiterated that the US will continue to hold the North to account over its recent missile provocations. "Our goal is to achieve that ultimate objective -- the complete denuclearization of the Kor...

WASHINGTON -- The United States and South Korea must not reduce their joint military drills just to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table, former US ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris said Thursday, calling it a "proven path to failure." He also dismissed the call for an end of Korean War declaration long advocated by the incumbent Moon Jae-in administration. "I think the current adm...

Historically, Korea and Japan have long been in conflict and contradiction. Since Japan’s colonization of Korea, it has deepened what some observe to be Japan’s sense of superiority over Korea and Korea’s sense of inferiority toward Japan. Japan’s “Lost Decades” –- a period of economic stagnation caused by an asset price bubble collapsing in the 1990s -- and Korea’s rise in national power in the ...

South Korea’s Foreign Minister nominee Rep. Park Jin of the People Power Party met Wednesday with Sung Kim, US Special Representative for North Korea, and agreed to maintain an “impenetrable alliance” when the incoming government takes over. In their closed-door meeting, the minister nominee stressed how the series of missile launches by North Korea posed a “serious threat” not only to the Korea...

South Korea will set up a task force to deal with its potential participation in a US-led economic framework, as the United States has accelerated preparations to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday. The Joe Biden administration has sought to launch the IPEF for deeper cooperation with partner nations in the Asia-Pacific region on digital trad...