The surprise establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba marks the culmination of Seoul's diplomatic endeavors with socialist countries that have historically maintained friendly ties with North Korea, according to the presidential office on Thursday. South Korea and Cuba on Wednesday evening officially announced that they had forged diplomatic relations, fulfilling Seoul's decadeslong aspiration to engage with the socialist country. Seoul believes the move deliv

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has postponed his scheduled overseas trip to Germany and Denmark, according to Yoon's office on Wednesday. The presidential office had initially prepared for a week-long trip to the two European countries beginning on Sunday. Detailed schedules were being coordinated with each country. However, after careful consideration, the presidential office has reportedly decided to postpone the trip. Yoon's office, however, did not provide further details or

South Korea is "open-minded" about expanding the existing bilateral nuclear consultative group with the United States to a trilateral framework including Japan, a former South Korean national security advisor said Monday. Kim Sung-han, President Yoon Suk Yeol's former top national security advisor from 2022 to 2023, acknowledged that during his tenure, he had the opportunity to discuss the idea of the expansion of the framework with his Japanese counterpart. The Nuclear Consultati

South Korea's newly appointed Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul received an invitation to visit China from his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during their first phone call Tuesday, according to Seoul. Beijing concurrently revealed that Wang expressed expectations for South Korea to adopt a "positive, objective and friendly policy" toward China. Cho and Wang engaged in a 50-minute phone conversation, discussing matters of mutual interest, including high-level exchanges, supply chain coop

Discontent among North Koreans toward the hereditary succession of the country's leadership has grown over time, coupled with a pervasive negative public assessment of the performance of leader Kim Jong-un, according to a report from the Unification Ministry in Seoul. South Korea's Unification Ministry unveiled a 280-page report comprehensively detailing the reality of economic and social conditions in North Korea. This first-ever report of its kind is based on in-depth interviews with

Over 60 percent of South Koreans are skeptical that Washington would use its nuclear weapons in the event of a Korean Peninsula contingency, according to a survey conducted by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies on Monday. The research institute in Seoul, named after SK Group founder Chey Jong-hyun, released the findings of an in-person interview survey conducted on 1,043 Koreans from Dec. 15 last year to Jan. 10 this year, in collaboration with Gallup Korea. According to the survey results,

Eight countries including South Korea, together with the European Union, joined forces on Thursday to denounce the atrocities and human rights violations committed by Myanmar's junta in a joint statement on Thursday. A joint statement was issued on the same day Myanmar's military seized power in a dawn coup on Feb. 1, 2021, and overthrew the democratically elected government. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the military regime’s ongoing atrocities and human right

South Korea aims to convey a more specific message to the North Korean leadership this year, emphasizing that provocations will only strengthen the South's alignment with the United States and Japan, the country's Ambassador to the United States Cho Hyun-dong said Tuesday. "North Korea has been persistently conducting unprecedented threats and provocations against us," he said. "We will never be swayed or (give in) to North Korea's provocations and threats. Instead,

North Korea has shuttered two more diplomatic missions in Hong Kong and Libya, bringing down the global total from 46 to 44, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The additional shutdown, part of a series of such moves, followed the Foreign Ministry's earlier confirmation of Pyongyang's closure of embassies in seven countries: Guinea, Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal, Spain, Angola, and Uganda, as of early December. The Hong Kong government's official website has officially

The South Korean government on Tuesday urged Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to "immediately retract" her claim of territorial sovereignty over Dokdo, which are South Korea's easternmost sovereign islets, in her parliamentary speech. "The government strongly protests against the repeated unjust territorial claims by the Japanese government regarding Dokdo, which is undeniably our distinct territory —historically, geographically, and under international law,"

A Chinese cultural and art delegation hailing from the northeastern province of Liaoning arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, marking a revival in friendship events commemorating the Lunar New Year's holiday that had been paused the last few years. The cultural mission's visit represents the third publicly disclosed, high-profile exchange between the two countries in less than a week. The significant interactions coincide with the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment o

Seoul will be home to the first-ever government-run center dedicated to shed light on the North Korean regime's human rights abuses and violations and enhance public awareness of the issue, the Unification Ministry announced Monday. The Yoon Suk Yeol government is actively working to establish an inaugural public center, forming a crucial component of its comprehensive strategy for addressing the harsh realities of the human rights situation in North Korea. The Unification Ministry official

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday, marking the first high-level exchanges of the year as both countries commemorate the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties. North Korea's state-run media on Friday reported the arrival of the delegation of the Chinese Foreign Ministry led by Sun via the city of Sinuiju, the capital of North Pyongan Province, but did not share any further details. The meeting notably followed a one-month interval since the

North Korea-linked hackers carried out the largest number of cryptocurrency thefts in 2023, despite a decrease in the overall amount stolen, a US blockchain analysis firm reported Wednesday. The number of hacks surged to 20 in 2023, marking the "highest number on record" since 2016, according to an online report released by Chainalysis, headquartered in New York. The trend of cryptocurrency theft has steadily increased since 2020, with North Korea-associated hackers conducting five, ni

South Korea and Russia are currently in a "turbulent" place, but the future will be different if Seoul takes steps to stabilize bilateral ties, according to the new Russian Ambassador to Seoul Georgy Zinoviev. "We perceive that the ball is in the (South) Korean court. So, we are ready when our (South) Korean partners are ready," the ambassador in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on Monday. "But, we are not going to enforce or try to impose any goodwill on our

Kim Gunn, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, said North Korea's plan of severing inter-Korean exchanges would only hurt itself, as he attended a meeting with his counterparts from the United States and Japan in Seoul on Thursday to address a laundry list of urgent security issues. "Most recently, North Korea announced the plan to abolish agencies for inter-Korean exchanges. It also clings to the old playbook to shift blame to the ROK and the US," Kim said, referring to South Ko

The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States on Thursday pledged to resolutely counter the continuing illicit military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, emphasizing bilateral alignment and close coordination with the international community. South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Gunn, and US Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak, met in Seoul, two days after a publicly disclosed meeting between Russian President Vladim

Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with the North Korean foreign minister in Moscow raised the possibility of his trip to Pyongyang, Wednesday, intensifying concerns about deepening bilateral military cooperation posing challenges to the international order. North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, on her first solo overseas trip since her promotion to the position in June 2022, made a three-day trip to Russia that began Monday. The Kremlin announced that Choe and Russia�

Inter-Korean relations hit a new low as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the removal of all symbols of reconciliation and cooperation between the two Koreas, a highly volatile and intricate relationship that endured for over 50 years, despite changes in South Korean governments and hereditary power succession in North Korea. South Korea will also be designated as the "primary foe and invariable principal enemy" in the North Korean constitution by Kim's order on Monday, Nort

North Korean state media on Monday claimed that the country had successfully test-fired a solid-fuel hypersonic missile with an intermediate-range for the first time on Sunday, the same day the country's foreign minister arrived in Russia. The South Korean military said it was evaluating North Korea's claim. Hypersonic missiles fly at lower altitudes, offering greater maneuverability up through the terminal phase, and travel at speeds of at least Mach 5, equivalent to five times the sp