US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield will attend a virtual conference on UN peacekeeping hosted by the Seoul government next week, according to her office. Thomas-Greenfield will lead the US delegation to the virtual 2021 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial hosted by Seoul on Dec. 7 and 8 to reaffirm US commitment to improving peacekeeping operations, the US Mission to the UN said Friday (local time). "UN peacekeeping missions are one of the most effective tools the globa

The militaries of South Korea and the United States will discuss the possibility of conducting an assessment required for the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) earlier than the current plan of next fall, a Seoul official said Friday. The official's remarks came after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly agreed to consider advancing the timing for the full operational capability (FOC) assessment during a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in on Thursday. Just h

Top Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi said the nation supports President Moon Jae-in’s push for the declaration of the end of the Korean War during talks with Korea’s national security adviser Suh Hoon in Tianjin, China, officials said on Friday. Suh’s visit to China was made as a follow-up to Yang’s visit to Seoul in August 2020. They discussed bilateral relations, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and other regional issues. Chung Wa Dae said Suh exp

A Coast Guard rescue operation was under way Friday to evacuate Chinese sailors from a fishing boat sinking in South Korea's southern waters, officials said. The 1,000-ton Chinese vessel started sinking at 10:59 a.m. after colliding with a rock in waters 22 kilometers southeast of Ganyeo Rock near the southern coastal city of Yeosu, 450 kilometers south of Seoul, according to officials. So far 13 people have been rescued, and nine others are also being evacuated. Coast Guards officials were d

A top Chinese official in charge of foreign affairs said Beijing supports Seoul's push for the declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, according to South Korea's embassy Friday. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, delivered the message during a meeting with Suh Hoon, director of national security at Cheong Wa Dae who serves as President Moon Jae-in's national security adviser, in China's eastern city of Tianjin the previous day, the embassy in B

South Korea and the United States are set to hold their annual defense ministerial talks in Seoul on Thursday to discuss the envisioned wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer, North Korean threats and bilateral alliance issues, officials here said. Defense Minister Suh Wook and his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, will lead the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), as the allies are stepping up cooperation for regional stability amid North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats and

South Korea has decided to host a major UN peacekeeping conference via video link next week, instead of an originally planned face-to-face session, due to concerns over the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant, according to Seoul officials Wednesday. The 2021 Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial will be held in the form of a "full-fledged online conference" on Dec. 7-8 as scheduled, a foreign ministry official told reporters. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Defense Minister S

Top diplomats of South Korea and five Central Asian nations gathered at a regional forum held in Tajikistan to explore ways on expanding cooperation for the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong attended the 14th Korea-Central Asia Forum held in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on Tuesday, which was joined by representatives from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In a key note speech, C

South Korea has shipped 539,000 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines to help the Southeast Asian nation address its vaccine shortages, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday. An airplane carrying the jabs departed from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, earlier in the day and will arrive in the Philippines on the same day, the ministry said. South Korea has already shared coronavirus vaccine shots with three other countries -- Vietnam, Thailand and Iran -- as it

The education ministry has launched an assistance project to build a smart classroom in Cambodia to help the country experiment with teaching and learning through up-to-date information and communications technology (ICT) devices, officials said Tuesday. Under the joint project launched with the Busan city education office and the APEC Learning Community Builders, the Ministry of Education installed an ICT-equipped experimental classroom in Wat Bo Primary School in Cambodia's Siem Reap, accordi

North Korea has criticized a new trilateral security partnership among Australia, Britain and the United States as an American "tool for war" that poses "serious threats" to world peace. In a commentary posted on the North's foreign ministry website Monday, the Korea-Asia Association said the international community should be wary of the initiative, called AUKUS, that "brings dark clouds of a nuclear war to the world." "(The concerns) come from the fact that

The US Department of Defense has concluded its review of the global defense posture, calling for cooperation with allies and partner countries to deter North Korean threats and potential Chinese aggression. Following months of analysis, the Pentagon released the results of the 2021 Global Posture Review (GPR) on Monday (US time) at a time when Washington has been striving to reinforce cooperation with friendly nations against an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-ambitious North Korea.

Starting Saturday, some 260 Sakhalin Koreans -- ethnic Koreans who were forced to relocate to the far-eastern Russian island by their Japanese colonizers during World War II -- are set to arrive in their ancestral homeland, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.  The repatriation is in accordance with legislation that took effect in January, which expanded the eligibility criteria for relocation and financial support from the South Korean government for Sakhalin Koreans.  Previously,

The following article was contributed by the Embassy of Oman in Seoul. — Ed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sultanate of Oman will mark the 51st National Day of the Renaissance, Nov. 18. The event comes around at a time when Omanis ponder about the achievements made so far and brace for further accomplishments, with firm resolve, under the astute leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik who pledged to hold high the banner of the Rene

There’s no free lunch in China’s “vaccine diplomacy”