Peace and freedom was the prize of the Korean War that South Korea earned, and it should be a reminder for all South Koreans that its vibrant democracy with a strong economy came at a cost, Colombian veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War said Thursday, during an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul. Separated by the Pacific Ocean, Colombia is the only Latin American country to field ground troops and a warship to help South Korea fight back North Korea and China during the war, which sti

The Navy will hold training sessions with the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier and its escort ships in waters off the Korean Peninsula as the carrier strike group called off a port call in South Korea amid the raging coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday. “Given the pandemic crisis, we will take part in naval exchanges involving humanitarian and disaster relief, from Monday to Wednesday next week,” the ministry said, noting there were i

The US is being forced back to former President Barack Obama’s strategic patience on North Korea, as Pyongyang rebuffs any diplomatic outreach and shows no signs of returning to nuclear negotiations, experts said Wednesday. During his visit to South Korea that ended Tuesday, US special representative on North Korea Sung Kim reiterated that Washington is ready to meet with Pyongyang anytime, anywhere and without preconditions. But Pyongyang is likely to leave Washington hanging, according

United States Forces Korea said Sunday it has not been asked to house evacuees fleeing Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly took over the government after the US began withdrawing troops. The Wall Street Journal reported the previous day that the US was looking at American bases in Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Bahrain and Italy as the US expands efforts to fly thousands of Afghan evacuees, who feel threatened by the Taliban insurgents because of their association with US forces. “To date, USF

Hong Beom-do, a highly revered independence fighter against the Japanese occupation of Korea, was laid to rest at home Wednesday, 78 years after his death in Kazakhstan. The previous day, President Moon Jae-in posthumously awarded him the highest national order of merit. At a burial ceremony held at Daejeon National Cemetery, Moon called Hong a war hero and the commander-in-chief of the Korean Liberation Army, whose return he said “gives hope to South Koreans working together to find thei

South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, Noh Kyu-duk, will meet separately with his US and Russian counterparts to discuss North Korea’s denuclearization next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday. The South and US are seeking diplomacy with the North to resume nuclear talks, amid Pyongyang’s strong protest against the Seoul-Washington military drills that are due to end next week. The North, which routinely describes the drills as a rehearsal for invasion, warned t

US President Joe Biden said Thursday in the US that his country is committed to the mutual defense treaty with South Korea, noting the situation in South Korea is different from Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly took over the government after the withdrawal of US troops. The US, whose military still has wartime operational control of South Korea’s armed forces, has been pressed over its commitment to collective security as chaos grips Afghanistan. “We are in a situation where

South Korea and the US should not miss a rare opportunity to gradually turn North Korea into their ally by helping out Pyongyang, which is desperate to find a way out of its worst economic crisis, said Leem Ho-young, former deputy commander at the allies’ Combined Forces Command. “Let’s think beyond denuclearization. We have to eventually bring North Korea to the alliance-led order. That’s the ‘Grand Bargain,’” the retired four-star Army general said in

The presidential office is monitoring North Korea for a further reaction to the South Korea-US military exercises as the four-day preliminary drills took off Tuesday, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said in response to Pyongyang’s accusation earlier in the day that the drills threatened peace. Previously the Defense and Unification ministries had communicated with their North Korean counterparts by phone twice a day, but the North did not respond to a call from the South on Tuesday a

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party wants the US to endorse its initiative to rebuild ties with North Korea, the Washington Post said Friday, citing party leader Rep. Song Young-gil. Seoul is eager to pick up the momentum for diplomacy with Pyongyang by using the hotlines that the two Koreas reconnected a week ago. The North, which severed them a year ago, had reached out to the South, which sees an opportunity to resume what it calls a trust-building process to revive inter-Korean dial

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong is expected to meet virtually with Southeast Asian foreign ministers Friday and ask for their support in building lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, as the two Koreas seek to repair ties over recently reconnected hotlines. North Korea is also attending the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together top envoys from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations and their counterparts from 17 countries, including the US and EU. But North

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday instructed the defense minister to discuss the S. Korea-US military drills “carefully” by taking into consideration multiple factors, a hint the annual exercises could see some change this year. According to the presidential office, Moon told Defense Minister Suh Wook to prepare for the joint drills while looking at “factors including the pandemic.” Moon’s comment comes just a day after the country’s spy agency told la

South Korea should not suspend military exercises with the US to rebuild ties with North Korea because Pyongyang is not interested in peace efforts like Seoul, experts said Tuesday. On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned Seoul against holding the drills, which Pyongyang routinely denounces as rehearsals for war. The South and US annually stage drills mainly in spring and summer to bolster readiness against the North. A last-minute debate over whether to g

South Korea and the US are still discussing the joint military exercises set for later this month, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday, amid growing speculation they could skip the drills to make room for South and North Korea to rebuild strained ties. On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a statement warning Seoul against the exercises, a week after the two Koreas reopened communications lines. A year ago, Pyongyang cut them and demolished

South Korea and the US have yet to reach consensus on clean-up costs for military bases that Washington is handing back to Seoul, despite years of talks, the first of which was held in 2002. On Friday, the US military agreed to return about one-quarter of its Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul by early next year. This is the second time since last year the US military is giving up parts of its Yongsan base, the largest US installation here and one of 12 sites out of 80 it needs to hand over to K

The military has recently seen its biggest coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, which forced its anti-piracy warship to come home last week. The 301-strong Cheonghae Unit, which left the country unvaccinated for Africa in February, cut short its mission because more than two-thirds of its crew were infected. But the military, which sent an aircraft to airlift the crew and a contingent to bring the 4,400-ton destroyer left behind back home, told the parliamentary defense committee tha

Seamen on South Korea’s unvaccinated anti-piracy mission who returned home from Africa this week because of a massive COVID outbreak aboard their warship said Friday that the coronavirus could have spread onto the vessel from food supplies they loaded from a nearby port. A seaman from the 301-strong Cheonghae Unit, which arrived here Tuesday with more than two-thirds of its crew infected, exhibited cold symptoms on July 2, a day after the destroyer made a four-day supply stop at a port. M

The military’s decision to launch an inspection into the COVID-19 outbreak that forced its anti-piracy unit to return home from Africa has sparked concerns, as the military plans to run the examination itself without outside experts that critics say are needed for an independent inquiry. The Cheonghae Unit, which cut short its mission, was found to have been sidelined from the vaccine priority list. It was left out from the March vaccination campaign because of supply constraints; it

The Ministry of National Defense has launched a sweeping inspection into the massive COVID-19 outbreak that forced its unvaccinated anti-piracy unit to return home five months after departing for Africa, military officials said Thursday. The inspection comes amid mounting calls for Defense Minister Suh Wook to step down to take responsibility for an aborted overseas mission, a first for the military, which airlifted the 301-strong Cheonghae Unit on Tuesday. More than two-thirds of the cre

Military and health authorities had not looked to vaccinate the country’s anti-piracy warship off the coast of Africa, despite opportunities along the way. So when the COVID-19-hit unit returned home Tuesday, it was the first time the military had cut an overseas mission short. The military, which has said the seamen could not get COVID shots because they had little expertise in handling a possible allergic reaction to the vaccine or the ability to manage extreme storage conditions f