Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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'PyeongChang Declaration' urges world to improve rights of intellectually disabled
Global leaders participating in a conference on intellectual disabilities on Wednesday will issue a joint statement urging the world to help improve rights for the intellectually disabled, officials said.The "PyeongChang Declaration," with the subtitle, "Hearing Voices, Making Changes," will be announced after the conclusion of the Global Development Summit, which opened earlier Wednesday on the sidelines of the 10th Special Olympics World Winter Games, the event's organizers said. PyeongChang,
Jan. 30, 2013
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Korean leaders pledge support for Myanmar reform, democracy
Korean leaders pledged support for Myanmar’s political reform and economic development during their meetings with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday. Suu Kyi arrived in Seoul late Monday for a five-day visit to attend the opening ceremony for the biennial Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province.She met with President Lee Myung-bak, President-elect Park Geun-hye and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon to discuss the two countries’ cooperation on bilateral and Asia
Jan. 29, 2013
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Foreign Ministry voices concerns over transfer of trade affairs
The Foreign Ministry expressed concerns on Tuesday over a plan by the transition team of President-elect Park Geun-hye to transfer its trade division to the commerce ministry, saying it could hurt overall capabilities in trade negotiations. The ministry made the comments in an 8-page report submitted to the National Assembly as it is set to lose its 15-year-long jurisdiction over trade affairs, a part of government-wide reorganization plans set by the incoming President Park. The report, obtaine
Jan. 29, 2013
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Suu Kyi to meet Park
Both women lost their fathers to gunshots. Both also overcame that tragedy and rose to political prominence in countries where men dominate decision-making, buoyed in part by the legacies of their fathers.Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader whose 2010 release from house arrest signaled the beginning of Myanmar’s transition from decades of military rule, is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Seoul with Park Geun-hye, who takes office next month as South Korea’s first female president.The meeting be
Jan. 28, 2013
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KOICA shores up medical services, rural development in Peru
CCORAO/PACHACUTEC, Peru ― Fresh out of high school and dismayed by his lack of resources to go to college, Orland Choque took a trip to a ceramic studio in the city of Urubamba in southeastern Peru in 2005. Upon first contact with ceramics, he was mesmerized by its sculptural possibilities. That was his “eureka moment,” he said, which led him to sign up for a pottery school run by KOICA in his hometown Ccorao. Choque, now 26, teaches and helps with the academy’s operations and administrative aff
Jan. 27, 2013
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Korea promotes student exchange programs with Chile
SANTIAGO ― With Korean pop culture fast spreading among young Chileans, the Korean Embassy in the Latin American country is setting its sights on student exchange programs as the focal point for its public diplomacy.Korea has been exploring ways to sustain the Korean Wave around the globe and to make the most of the knock-on effects on its national prestige and cooperation with partner countries. The exchange programs allow participants to better understand Korea and experience firsthand its cul
Jan. 27, 2013
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K-pop craze boosts Korea’s public diplomacy
SANTIAGO/LIMA ― On a slow Wednesday afternoon, dozens of teenage girls straggled into a public park in Santiago, their T-shirts featuring TVXQ, JYJ, Super Junior and other Korean pop stars. Soon, music was turned up, and the group began to walk through the choreography. The practice goes on for about three hours, three days a week. The venue has also become a hot spot for youngsters to exchange the latest K-pop-related information and products. “We also carry out online campaigns to boost sales
Jan. 27, 2013
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Photo exhibition tells story of Israel’s beginnings
The Israeli Embassy brought the story of the founding of the State of Israel, and the powerful immigration story it entailed, to Korea for the first time in a photo exhibition at Korea Foundation Cultural Center Gallery through Feb. 7.It is a story that Israeli Ambassador to Korea Tuvia Israeli knows all too well. He emigrated to Israel with his parents from Romania as a 7-year-old child in 1962.“We stayed in a transition camp, like many first arrivals,” Israeli said during the opening reception
Jan. 27, 2013
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Korea, China, Japan meet to boost ASEAN cultural ties
Korea, Japan and China explored ways to enhance regional cooperation in trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges, especially in tourism, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos on Jan. 20. Secretary-General of the ASEAN-Korea Center Chung Hae-moon met with his counterparts Ma Mingqiang of the ASEAN-China Center and Yoshikuni Ohnishi of the ASEAN-Japan Center. The meeting marked the first such trilateral confab between the ASEAN centers of Japan
Jan. 27, 2013
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Australia Day highlights multiculturalism
The Australian Embassy in Korea lauded multiculturalism as an important value in Australian society in this year’s national day celebrations at The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul on Thursday.The evening’s festivities included a fashion show with Korea-Australian designer Bae Yeo-jin’s winter line, worn by Australian model Jessica Gomes, who made headlines here in 2011 when performing in Korea’s “Dancing with the Stars.”“A focal point for this year’s celebration included the achievements of Korean-Au
Jan. 27, 2013
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Korea-ASEAN understanding promoted through storytelling
An international project started in 2010 to enhance mutual understanding between Korea and Southeast Asian countries has led to the creation of educational materials to promote the values of understanding, peace and human rights.Organizers from the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding did this through the power of storytelling. “Telling tales from Southeast Asia and Korea” was launched this month.Teachers in East Asia can promote mutual understanding in English and ot
Jan. 27, 2013
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Envoy proposes Korea-Japan teamwork on nation branding
One of the first things Japanese Ambassador to Korea Bessho Koro noticed when he arrived in Korea about three months ago was the crowds routinely assembling outside his residence in the Seongbuk-dong neighborhood of Seoul ― gaggles of Japanese women aiming and clicking cameras.But, to his chagrin, they were not there to get a shot of him. They were snapping pictures of the house across the street of actor Bae Yong-jun of “Winter Sonata” fame, a TV drama that first aired in 2002.Bae is an example
Jan. 27, 2013
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Park to send policy consultation team to U.S.
South Korean President-elect Park eun-hye plans to send a high-level delegation to the United States or policy consultations with the American ally, her spokesman said Friday.Rep. Lee Hahn-koo, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, ill visit the U.S. in the near future as head of a “policy consultation delegation” that includes three members of the transition team and government officials, spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said.The U.S. has welcomed the planned visit and the two sides are discussing d
Jan. 25, 2013
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Myanmar's pro-democracy leader to make 5-day visit to S. Korea
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will make a five-day visit to South Korea next week that will include a meeting with President-elect Park Geun-hye, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. Suu Kyi will arrive in Seoul on Monday and attend the opening ceremony of the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games to be hosted by the South Korean alpine town of PyeongChang, the ministry said in a statement. In South Korea, Suu Kyi will also receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights
Jan. 24, 2013
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Park, Canadian leader agree to push FTA
President-elect Park Geun-hye and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed Thursday to push for a quick conclusion of a bilateral free trade agreement, a spokeswoman said.The agreement came when Harper called Park earlier in the day to congratulate her on her Dec. 19 election, Park’s spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun said.“Prime Minister Harper said he hopes the two countries’ relations will develop further through a quick conclusion of a free trade agreement,” Cho told reporters during a press brie
Jan. 24, 2013
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Deepening relations between Korea and China
Korea and China celebrated the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations last year. As the Korean saying goes, a decade is enough to change even mountains and rivers. Accordingly, there have been enormous changes in Korea-China relations over the last two decades. Before the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, the Chinese said that running water carves a gulley. Today, there is not a mere gulley between our two countries but large paths via air and sea. In 2011, 6.68 million Koreans an
Jan. 22, 2013
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Singapore offers full scholarship for East Asian students
The deadline of Feb. 19 for submitting applications to receive Singapore’s “Goh Keng Swee Scholarship” is fast approaching. The Goh Keng Swee Scholarship is designed to fully support four worthy students from East Asia through undergraduate school, including tuition and other mandatory fees, a stipend for living costs, round-trip airfare, housing and other expenses.The scholarships are awarded to students from 15 economies ― Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia,
Jan. 20, 2013
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Italian Embassy brings award-winning pianist to Seoul
The Italian Culture Institute will bring award-winning pianist Christian Leotta to perform a recital dedicated to the sonatas of Beethoven at Ilshin Hall in Hannam-dong, Seoul, on Feb. 4. Leotta is renowned for his vast repertoire, and has received numerous accolades for being the youngest pianist since the youthful Daniel Barenboim to both perform and record the entire corpus of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.Leotta will perform Beethoven as part of an East Asia tour that includes stops in Osaka,
Jan. 20, 2013
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The life of an honorary consul
Iceland does not have an embassy in Korea, but it does have a diplomatic representative.Cho Hae-hyeong, chairman and CEO of Nara Holdings and former CEO of Ssangyong Corp., has been an important catalyst in the diplomatic relations between Korea and Iceland for years ― 25 years to be exact ― as the honorary consul-general of Iceland.Iceland does not pay him for the work he does. Cho was not born in Iceland and is not even a citizen of Iceland ― he is Korean. As honorary consul general, Cho prov
Jan. 20, 2013
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‘Tatra Tiger’ celebrates 20 years of independence
Slovakia celebrated 20 years as an independent nation and 20 years of diplomatic relations with Korea in a reception at Seoul Millennium Hilton Hotel on Monday.Slovakia achieved independence on Jan. 1, 1993.“We Slovaks struggled for centuries for national existence and statehood,” Slovak Ambassador to Korea Dusan Bella said in a moving speech before assembled guests, government officials and foreign diplomats. “Jan. 1, 1993, symbolizes the birth of a sovereign Slovakia and is a starting point of
Jan. 20, 2013