South Korean Industry Minister Moon Sung-wook met with Kazakhstani Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar on Thursday and discussed ways to push forward various joint economic projects, Moon's office said. The meeting came two months after the two nations signed a set of memorandums of understanding in various industry fields, such as automobiles, natural resources and healthcare, during Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's visit to  South Korea. During the talks, Moon "expressed

The United States remains open to dialogue with North Korea, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. Her remarks come after North Korea announced a successful test launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that some believe may be a "game changer." "(It has) consistently been our view. So we've stated our openness to having those discussions with North Korea for months now," Psaki said in a press briefing onboard the Air Force One en route to Pen

The United States' alliances with South Korea and others are key to dealing with many challenges facing the US, including Chinese aggression and North Korean threats, nominees for US ambassadors to Japan and China said Wednesday. Richard Nicholas Burns, nominee for US ambassador to China, said US alliances provided a "comparative advantage" over China. "The comparative advantage that we have versus China is that we have treaty allies. We have partners who deeply believe in us an

TOKYO -- A new memorial stone will be dedicated in Nagasaki, Japan, next month to thousands of Korean victims of a US atomic bombing of the city in 1945, its promoters said Wednesday. The monument will be unveiled on Nov. 6 in a ceremony in Nagasaki Peace Park, which commemorates the Aug. 9, 1945, nuclear explosion, according to the South Korean Consulate-General in Fukuoka and a group of ethnic Koreans steering the project. The plutonium bomb detonation is believed to have killed about 74,000

North Korea's recent missile test underscores the need for engaging the reclusive state and sanctions relief can be considered as part of incentives to bring it back to the negotiating table, Seoul's top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong was speaking at a parliamentary audit session, hours after the North said it has successfully test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Tuesday. "We should take some actions to prevent North Korea from

South Korea's trade investment promotion agency has received an award from a United Nations body in recognition of best practices in promoting investment in healthcare sectors amid the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Wednesday. Invest Korea, the country's investment promotion unit under the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), was chosen as the winner of the 2021 Investment Promotion Awards by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), along with Costa Rica a

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's latest missile launch highlights the urgent need to engage with the reclusive state in dialogue, a senior South Korean official said Tuesday. The official also said South Korea, Japan and the United States share concerns over the North's missile launch. "There were concerns since the North's continued missile launches may affect our efforts (to resume dialogue) to a certain extent as we discuss ways to bring North Korea back to dialogue," the official said

WASHINGTON -- The United States remains ready to engage with North Korea anytime and anywhere, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, adding that North Korea's missile tests underscored the urgent need to engage with the reclusive state. North Korea fired what appeared to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Tuesday (Seoul time), marking its eighth missile test so far this year. "These launches also underscore the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy. Our offer rema

The US State Department on Tuesday condemned North Korea's latest missile launch as a threat to the region while urging the reclusive state to engage in dialogue. "The United States condemns the DPRK's ballistic missile launch. These launches are a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and are a threat to the region," a State Department spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency in an email. "We call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and eng

Ecological economist Lester R. Brown in his book “Plan B 3.0” suggested six grand strategies for overcoming the global climate and ecological crises, one of which is to restore lost forests around the world. Forests originally covered around 60 to 70 percent of land (13 billion hectares). However, the proportion of forests has been reduced to around 31 percent (4 billion hectares) due to the desertification, deforestation, conversion of forest, and expansion of agricultural and past

The intelligence chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan were to hold a closed-door trilateral meeting in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss North Korea and other pending issues, a government source said. Park Jie-won, the head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), was set to sit down with Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, and Hiroaki Takizawa, Japan's Cabinet intelligence director, according to the source. During the talks, the top intel officials are

US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim will visit Seoul this week for talks on ways to restart dialogue with the reclusive North, including an end-of-war declaration, the US diplomat said Monday. Kim's trip to Seoul will follow his meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Noh Kyu-duk and Takehiro Funakoshi, respectively, here in Washington this week. "Special Representative Noh and I also discussed the end of war proposal, and I look forward to continuin

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday for talks on a wide range of issues that the chief of the nuclear watchdog said will include North Korea. The meeting between Blinken and IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi marked the first of its kind since the top US diplomat took office in January. "The United States strongly supports the work of the IAEA. It is critical to helping to maintain international peace and stabi

South Korea has expressed concern over the new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's plan to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, Seoul officials said Monday. Kishida on Sunday visited the tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant and said the planned disposal of wastewater stored in the facility cannot be delayed, sticking to his predecessor's plan to discharge the water into the sea beginning in 2023. "Japan's decision (to discharge the

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday expressed “deep regret” over Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s sending of a ritual offering to the Yasukuni war shrine, which is seen by its Asian neighbors as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression.  Kishida sent a “masakaki” tree offering under his name as prime minister to celebrate the shrine’s two-day fall festival that runs through Monday, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.  It