South Korea and the United States will hold their annual defense ministers’ talks in Seoul next week to reaffirm their alliance and discuss issues including the transfer of wartime operational control, the Ministry of National Defense said Friday. Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and his US counterpart Mark Esper will attend the 51st Security Consultative Meeting on Nov. 15, where they are expected to touch on pending issues, such as Seoul’s intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo. Esp

Defense Nov. 8, 2019

In the financial and banking district of Yeouido in the center of Seoul, part of the oldest airport in the country is preserved to remind people of South Korea’s aviation history.Korea’s very first airport was constructed in 1916 on Yeouido, which was a barren sandbank in the capital city, known as Gyeongseong at the time. In the times when the idea of flying was unfamiliar to most Koreans, tens of thousands gathered in Yeouido to watch world-famous American stunt pilot Art Smit

Travel Nov. 7, 2019

The ongoing defense cost-sharing negotiations between South Korea and the United States face a rough road ahead, with Washington reportedly asking Seoul to pay for expenses not included in the original agreement.The US has asked Korea to pay about $5 billion toward the cost of maintaining its troops stationed here for another year, about five times more than the current 1.04 trillion won ($861.4 million), local media reported Thursday. This amount reportedly would include items that are not stip

Defense Nov. 7, 2019

David Stilwell, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, on Wednesday welcomed “fantastic” talks with South Korean government officials. Visiting the country as part of his Asia tour, the senior US official met with Korean government officials to discuss the alliance and ways to cooperate in the region, including separate meetings with Kim Hyun-chong, second deputy director of the presidential National Security Office, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, and w

Foreign Affairs Nov. 6, 2019

James DeHart, the chief US negotiator for the defense cost-sharing deal with South Korea, is in Seoul for an informal visit. South Korean government officials view the visit as aimed at learning more about public sentiment here toward the negotiations.DeHart, who arrived Tuesday, was scheduled to hold an unofficial dinner with his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Eun-bo, and other government officials during his four-day trip. It would be the second meeting of the top negotiators since they met f

Foreign Affairs Nov. 6, 2019

David Stilwell, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, arrived in Seoul late Tuesday for talks with Korean officials on their bilateral alliance and ongoing regional affairs. He is on a tour of Asia.Stilwell is expected to hold a series of meetings with government officials here and to pay a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, according to Foreign Ministry officials. One of the top issues the two allies are expected to discuss is the ongoing row be

Foreign Affairs Nov. 5, 2019

South Korea has asked the United States to intervene to resolve the ongoing row with Japan.Deputy Foreign Minister Yoon Soon-gu and David Stilwell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, discussed ongoing issues affecting the South Korea-US alliance and the trilateral relationship with Japan, both ministries said Saturday.In the talks held on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Thailand, the two senior officials pledged to maintain close coordination to ensu

Foreign Affairs Nov. 3, 2019

After a short-lived period of detente for the two Koreas, the North appears to be back to cold-shouldering the South. But this has not deterred the Moon administration from drawing up plans for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. As part of its effort to achieve that goal, Moon proposed to transform the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas into an “international peace zone” at a UN session last month. But the DMZ that the president called the “ecological treasure

North Korea Oct. 28, 2019

As defense cost-sharing negotiations between South Korea and the United States were to take place Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper highlighted the importance of allies sharing the burden for maintaining US forces in their countries.“I’ve said since I took office, the importance of burden-sharing from all of our allies and partners, whether it’s host nation support in Japan, whether it’s increased GDP from our European allies, the key is to help share the burd

Defense Oct. 23, 2019

Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday denied allegations made by a civic group that he took part in planning to impose martial law to quell monthslong candlelight protests if the impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye failed. Hwang’s party filed a complaint to the prosecutors’ office against Lim Tae-hoon, the chief of the Military Human Rights Center for Korea, who raised the suspicions.  On Monday, Lim, testifying as a witness at the parliamentary audit of

Politics Oct. 22, 2019

Regulations should be revised on the United Nations Command’s authority to give entry permission into the Demilitarized Zone, Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Monday. During a parliamentary inspection session, Kim said the system should be revised to allow South Korea’s entry into the DMZ for nonmilitary purposes, while maintaining the area safely, as Rep. Chun Jung-bae pointed out there have been several cases where the UNC rejected entry requests into the area for “unc

North Korea Oct. 21, 2019

The locations of about 40 percent of South Korea’s military installations, including some crucial fighter wings, are openly revealed on Google Maps, a lawmaker said Sunday.According to data that Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea received from the Ministry of National Defense, about 40 percent of all military installations here are exposed as satellite images on Google Maps. The exact number of installations has not been revealed because it is a military secret. The

Defense Oct. 20, 2019

Prosecutors on Sunday sought arrest warrant for seven university students who broke into the US ambassador’s residence in Seoul on Friday, as the police strengthened security measures around the area.The seven are among 17 members of a university students’ association who entered the US ambassador’s residence and two who attempted to enter. All 19 were taken into police custody on Friday for trespassing or attempting to trespass on the residence of US Ambassador to South Korea

Social Affairs Oct. 20, 2019

The late anti-apartheid activist and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela’s daughter Zenani Mandela-Dlamini has been appointed South Africa’s ambassador to South Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.Arriving in Korea on Oct. 2, she visited the ministry on Thursday to hold meetings with officials here.In her previous posts, she served as the South African ambassador to Argentina for five years from 2012, and then was appointed as high commissioner in Mauritius.“I am really happy a

Diplomatic Circuit Oct. 17, 2019

The United States does not have any “secret plan” to make the United Nations Command an operational command, and media reports regarding this are “fake news,” Gen. Robert Abrams, the UNC commander said Thursday.As South Korea is gearing up to retrieve its wartime operational control from the US, concerns have been raised here that Washington would try to keep its authority over the military activities in the region by strengthening the US-led UNC. “There is no

Defense Oct. 17, 2019