Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will visit Japan later this month to attend the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister's Office said Thursday. Han and Chung Jin-suk, the interim leader of the ruling People Power Party who doubles as the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, will lead the South Korean delegation for Abe's funeral on Sept. 27, the office said...

China's top legislator, Li Zhanshu, was set to arrive in Seoul on Thursday for meetings with President Yoon Suk-yeol and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo amid speculation he could discuss the possibility of President Xi Jinping visiting South Korea. Li, China's third-highest-ranking official and chief of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will lead a large delegation ...

From May 20-24, international attention shifted to the Indo-Pacific region from Ukraine, where a power struggle between the US and NATO against Russia has been taking place since mid-February. US President Joe Biden attended the “Quad” summit in Japan after visiting Korea in May. It was only 10 days after the inauguration of Korea’s new government headed by President Yoon Suk-yeol. As Biden sele...

Now is the time for Korea and China to look back on the past, face the present and talk about the future. Over the past 30 years, Korea-China relations have developed explosively. This week, as we continue the series on the New Korea-China relations, the second topic covers economy and trade, following the social and cultural dimensions. This week’s discussion invites two experts from home and a...

The 17th Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity kicked off in Jeju on Wednesday to address and explore ways to tackle major global challenges such as the intensifying US-China rivalry, the Ukraine crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Under the theme, “Beyond Conflict, Towards Peace: Coexistence and Cooperation,” the three-day forum has invited world-class leaders, government officials ...

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed an Australian labor expert as the new head of the Seoul office, filling in the post that has been vacant for the past two years, according to a media report Wednesday. The office of the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General confirmed that James Heenan, the head of the OHCHR Office in Palestine, has been tapped as t...

SEOUL/JEJU -- An annual international peace forum is set to kick off on the southern resort island of Jeju on Wednesday, with a focus on ways to promote global cooperation amid North Korea's continued saber-rattling, growing US-China rivalry, the Ukrainian crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. The three-day Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity comes especially as the Russia-Ukraine war poses new c...

MADRID/SEOUL -- National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo met the leader of Spain's Senate to discuss ways to widen economic cooperation between the two countries, his office said Wednesday. During their 30-minute meeting in Madrid on Tuesday, Kim and Ander Gil Garcia, president of the Senate of Spain, discussed how they could enhance cooperation in areas like renewable energy, electric vehicles, co...

Yoon expected to meet with leaders of US, Japan, China amid ongoing diplomatic challenges

MADRID -- National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo met with the leader of Spain's Congress of Deputies to discuss ways to enhance economic cooperation between the two countries, his office said Tuesday. Kim held a 70-minute meeting with Meritxell Batet Lamana, president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, in Madrid on Monday (local time) in the first official visit by a South Korean speaker to the...

South Korea's participation in an envisioned tech alliance led by the United States would be a "rational" decision for the country amid the intensifying competition for global technology hegemony between Washington and Beijing, a state-run think tank report showed Tuesday. South Korea is considering joining a US-led semiconductor alliance, called Chip 4, involving Japan and Taiwan. It is widely ...

Yoon will attend Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's funeral before traveling to the US for UN General Assembly, Canada

South Korea and 13 other member countries of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework kicked off negotiations for the US-led initiative to boost regional economic cooperation, prompting China to again question their intentions. Minister-level officials of the 14 countries attended the first in-person meeting of the IPEF held for two days from Thursday in Los Angeles. There, they agreed to start forma...

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- In a somber, regal procession, Queen Elizabeth II's flag-draped coffin was driven slowly through the Scottish countryside Sunday from her beloved Balmoral Castle to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Mourners packed city streets and highway bridges or lined rural roads with cars and tractors to take part in a historic goodbye to the monarch who had reigned for 70 years. Th...

The frozen relationship between South Korea and Japan seems to be thawing, at least among the general public. Korean people’s positive sentiment toward Japan bounced back to levels last seen in 2019, before Japan imposed trade sanctions on Korea over historical conflicts and S. Koreans responded with the “No Japan” boycott of anything Japanese. According to a report jointly released by Korean t...