A South Korean government jet left Tuesday to evacuate Koreans aboard the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan, amid concerns of rapidly rising cases of COVID-19 onboard. 　 The VCN-235 Air Force plane left Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, at noon, and landed in Japan’s Haneda Airport, 20 minutes away from the Yokohama port where the cruise ship Diamond Princess is docked. 　 The plane is scheduled to leave Japan on Wednesday and arrive at Gimpo Airport at around 8 a.m.

Foreign Affairs Feb. 18, 2020

South Koreans aboard a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship off the coast of Japan will face an additional two-week quarantine period back in Korea, if they wish to return, according to public health authorities on Monday. 　 Earlier on Sunday, Seoul announced it would repatriate Korean passengers and crew members from the Diamond Princess ship being held under quarantine at the Yokohama port, where 355 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed, in the largest cluster of virus cases outside o

Foreign Affairs Feb. 17, 2020

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday and agreed to cooperate to combat COVID-19 and proceed with preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Seoul in the first half of the year. “I and Minister Wang reaffirmed that there are no changes in our plans for Xi’s visit to Korea,” Kang told reporters after the bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference. “As w

Foreign Affairs Feb. 16, 2020

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un marked the birthday of his late father at a national mausoleum in Pyongyang, in his first public appearance in 22 days amid the coronavirus outbreak, the North’s state media reported Sunday. 　 Kim paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the embalmed bodies of his father, former leader Kim Jong-il, and his grandfather, founding leader Kim Il-sung, lie, according to the Korean Central News Agency. 　 “Kim visited the Kumsusan Palace of th

North Korea Feb. 16, 2020

With US-led sanctions on Pyongyang throttling its largely state-run economy, nearly half of North Koreans are earning money in the private sector, according to a recent survey.  The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Unification and conducted by the Korean Association of North Korean Studies alongside Hyundai Research Institute, was based on interviews on around 6,000 defectors starting in 2013, including the latest figure of 600 people who settled in Korea in the first half of 2019.

North Korea Feb. 13, 2020

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha left for Germany on Thursday to attend the Munich Security Forum. 　 During the annual three-day security conference from Friday through Sunday, Kang is set to speak about South Korean diplomacy to strengthen multilateralism, as a panel member at the conference’s main session. 　 While in Munich, the minister could hold bilateral or trilateral meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who are also attend

Foreign Affairs Feb. 13, 2020

US President Donald Trump plans to nominate Alex Wong, deputy special representative for North Korea, to an ambassador-level post at the United Nations, the White House announced Tuesday. 　 Wong, the No. 2 man in US talks with North Korea, has been tapped to serve as the US alternative representative for special political affairs in the UN. He will also serve as an alternate US representative to the UN General Assembly. 　 The new post requires Senate confirmation, and the process could take m

North Korea Feb. 12, 2020

US President Donald Trump told his foreign-policy advisers that he does not want another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before the presidential election in November, CNN reported Monday, citing two sources. 　 Denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea have been deadlocked since the Trump-Kim summit collapsed in Hanoi, Vietnam, last February. With Trump’s focus on winning reelection this year, his interest in engaging North Korea appears to have “waned,&rdquo

North Korea Feb. 11, 2020

South Korea and the US held a working group meeting on Monday in Seoul, aimed at coordinating policy on North Korea, as Seoul seeks to engage the North through inter-Korean exchanges, such as allowing South Korean travelers to visit North Korea. 　 Alex Wong, US deputy assistant secretary of state for North Korea, arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in central Seoul for a closed-door meeting with his South Korean counterpart Rhee Dong-yeol, director general of the Korean Peninsula Peace

Foreign Affairs Feb. 10, 2020

A transgender student, the first to gain admission to a women-only university in South Korea, has decided not to attend due to massive opposition from other students, according to media reports Friday.  “I withdrew my admission, because of growing fears on voices of opposition,” she told Yonhap News.  She also wrote in an online community Friday afternoon, the last day to accept the offer, after withdrawing. “I was scared of the recent situation. I was afraid of th

Social Affairs Feb. 7, 2020

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Friday that Seoul hasn’t heard back from Pyongyang on its proposal to allow South Koreans to travel to North Korea.  “North Korea hasn’t given an official response, nor reacted to the individual tourism (proposal) yet,” said Cho Hey-sil, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson, during a regular press briefing. “As for individual tourism, we are evaluating the issue, considering various matters related to the novel coro

North Korea Feb. 7, 2020

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday there was no change in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to visit South Korea in the first half of the year, despite the outbreak of a coronavirus. 　 “Regarding Xi’s visit to Korea, the agreement that it will be in the first half is still valid,” she told reporters during a press conference for local media outlets. “We will communicate closely with China so that major diplomatic events take place as planned.” 　

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2020

As fears of the new coronavirus spread around the world, so do racist attacks and stereotypes targeting people of Asian descent, with many Koreans overseas reporting having experienced discrimination. 　  “I am becoming hyperaware of my ethnicity even more these days,” Kim Jung-in, a 35-year-old Korean who lives in the US, told The Korea Herald.  　 “I feel like even a little cough or sneeze is eliciting attention at some places I go.” 　 Another Korean man, w

Foreign Affairs Feb. 5, 2020

INCHEON/SEOUL -- At 12:34 a.m. Tuesday, Korean Air Flight 854 arrived at Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to South Korea, carrying 110 passengers from Beijing.   The flight was the first to touchdown here from China since sweeping restrictions on arrivals from the country took effect, as Seoul ramps up measures to keep the new coronavirus at bay. Some 110 more flights from the virus-hit country, carrying about 10,000, were to arrive on the same day, mostly through Inch

Foreign Affairs Feb. 4, 2020

South Korea will bar all foreigners from China’s Hubei province from entering the country, starting from Tuesday, but a growing number of experts, politicians and citizens say the measure is insufficient to fight the rapidly spreading new coronavirus. They demand a complete ban on entries from all of China.  The latest measure, set to take effect Tuesday, blocks entry of all foreign nationals who have visited the Chinese province that has become the hub of the deadly coronavirus in

Foreign Affairs Feb. 3, 2020