Helping rebuild Turkey following last week’s earthquakes that killed at least 35,000 people is the new priority for South Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, moving away from the role of first responders to helping Ankara set “long-term recovery goals.” Seoul is to field a second rescue team Thursday night. “It’s all about reconstruction now, rather than rescue,” a senior ministry official told reporters following a multiagency meeting chaired by Forei

First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and his US and Japanese counterparts reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearizing North Korea while countering China to curb its “destabilizing activities” at a meeting in Washington on Monday. The gathering, which last took place in October 2022 in Tokyo, chiefly addresses North Korea and China. Pyongyang fired off a record number of missiles last year and Beijing has recently been accused of sending what Washington says is a spy balloon ov

The South Korean government is increasing its efforts to end the long-running historical dispute with Japan over restitution to Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II, but Japan shows little sign of offering what the victims have long sought: a direct apology and compensation. Cho Hyun-dong, Korea’s first vice foreign minister, was less optimistic of a “quick resolution” to the dispute than before, saying Sunday it was “too early to tell”

South Korea has imposed sanctions on North Korean individuals and groups for stealing cryptocurrency assets and coordinating cyberattacks, the first independent steps to curb cybercrimes that Seoul says are linked to bankrolling Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. Four North Korean computer programmers and seven entities associated with North Korea’s top military intelligence agency -- the Reconnaissance General Bureau -- face the ban, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday

South Korea will restart issuing short-term visas for travelers from China on Saturday, ending a monthlong suspension prompted by a rise in COVID-19 infections in China. Beijing had immediately retaliated with the same suspension, calling it a “countermeasure” and urging Seoul to lift its restrictions first. Kim Sung-ho, the vice interior minister in charge of disaster and safety management, said Friday that the latest shift in policy came in light of the fact that fewer arrivals fro

President Yoon Suk Yeol offered condolences Thursday to Salih Murat Tamer, Turkish ambassador to South Korea, over the deadly earthquake that has killed close to 16,000 people in northern Turkey and southern Syria as of Thursday afternoon. According to Yoon’s office, the president reaffirmed his readiness to help the Turkish people in “every way possible” during a visit to the Turkish Embassy in Seoul. There, Yoon promised to field a second rescue team following a 118-member te

South Korea will spend more this year on official development assistance to the world’s poorest countries, a record on-year rise in foreign aid that also makes the total expenditure its biggest ever, amid Seoul’s push to leave a bigger global imprint. Since December last year, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration has been looking for ways to deliver on its signature foreign policy, the Indo-Pacific Strategy, as Korea tries building on the plan to recast its image as a major player that i

South Korea is facing potential hurdles in its yearslong battle to put behind once and for all its longtime historical dispute with Japan over forced labor, as it is now forced to revisit a claim that the Korean military was responsible for murdering civilians during the Vietnam War. This week, a Seoul court ruled in favor of a Vietnamese civilian who had asked the Korean government for damages, saying the Korean Marines fighting alongside US forces hurt her and her family -- all unarmed at the

South Korean rescue workers will fly to Turkey shortly before Tuesday midnight after a powerful earthquake killed at least 5,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria. In Turkey alone, the death toll has surpassed 3,400 as of Tuesday afternoon. The 118-member rescue team -- including doctors, emergency medical technicians and special forces trained to deal with disaster recovery -- is the largest single rescue mission ever put together. President Yoon Suk Yeol was one of the first world l

The South Korean government on Tuesday decided to provide $5 million in emergency humanitarian aid, dispatch rescue personnel and provide emergency medical supplies to support Turkey, which is suffering from massive casualties after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Monday. President Yoon Suk Yeol also sent a message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his special condolences and promise that "all possible assistance" would be provided for a speedy recovery. &ldquo

South Korea and the United States, its biggest ally, have reaffirmed their commitment to using their full range of firepower, including US nuclear weapons, to contain North Korea, while also expanding economic and space exchanges in the latest joint push to mark 70 years of relations this year. At a Friday meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Foreign Minister Park Jin highlighted “watertight coordination” in dealing with threats from North Korea, which fir

The United Nations is behind South Korea’s efforts to denuclearize North Korea and its measures to deter the isolated country from repeating aggressive actions like another nuclear test, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday at a meeting with Foreign Minister Park Jin in New York. The UN chief said he expects South Korea to play a bigger role in leading global initiatives involving protecting freedom and ensuring peace, a reference to Seoul’s latest Indo-Pacific strate

Foreign Minister Park Jin set off on a four-day tour to the United States on Wednesday to drum up support for South Korea’s bid to win a two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council while reinforcing bilateral efforts to denuclearize North Korea. Seoul, which last served on the UN body from 2013 to 2014, is eyeing another term starting next year -- a move it sees as part of its long-term Indo-Pacific strategy to lead the international conversation on peace by discussing more than a

Growing calls for South Korea’s independent nuclear buildup, a discussion that had left the country more divided than united, now offer policymakers latitude to widen the nuclear debate, experts said Tuesday as South Korea steps up efforts for a more powerful military to contain North Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol and Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Seoul on Tuesday while Foreign Minister Park Jin and his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, will mee

South Korea should be careful not to be overly dependent on China, a key sourcing destination for Seoul, as Beijing could leverage that to get what it wants in a world split between free democracies and authoritarian regimes, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Seoul on Monday. The visit by the chief of the 30-member military alliance based in Brussels, Belgium -- the second time since 2017 -- is the latest move by the Western coalition trying to push back against longtime adversarie

Foreign Minister Park Jin and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday discussed jointly working on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and bolstering ties between the Asian country and the 30-member military alliance. The meeting comes as President Yoon Suk Yeol looks to enlist help from European countries in combatting an increasingly belligerent North Korea, which fired off a record number of missiles last year and still shows no sign of dialing down aggression. Yoon was th

Unusually cold weather in South Korea is driving a surge in winter illnesses, such as hypothermia, frostbite and chilblains, according to health authorities. The latest data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency found that the number of such patients reached 345 as of Friday since December, a 65.9 percent rise from the same period a year ago. The temperature in Seoul last week dropped below minus 17 degrees Celsius, a threshold that the country’s weather agency says has been

Foreign Minister Park Jin is set to hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early February, sources said Thursday, as the two allies step up efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and resolve a trade dispute involving US tax rules that its allies say favor locally made electric vehicles. The Foreign Ministry said details like exact dates and agendas were under debate, without elaborating. In late February, Park is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference i

South Korea and China look set for a renewed clash over what South Korean authorities believe are Chinese cyberattacks on multiple local academic organizations, potentially the latest flare-up in tensions recently heightened by a tit-for-tat visa spat over stronger COVID travel curbs. Police opened a formal probe Wednesday to investigate hacking that had disrupted access to websites of at least 12 academic groups, a string of attacks that took place over the four-day Lunar New Year holiday endin

A second attempt by Japan to seek a UNESCO World Heritage List designation for a 400-year-old gold mine that South Korea says forced Koreans into labor during World War II is casting a shadow over current bilateral talks underway to resolve the dispute. Tokyo formally refiled a request Friday to obtain recognition for its Sado Island mine, omitting the history of Koreans forced to work at what was once the world’s largest gold producer before the shutdown in 1989. Updated documents submitt