Cheong Wa Dae is upping pressure on Japan over summit talks as it has started discussions about President Moon Jae-in’s possible attendance at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics later this month. Until last week, the presidential office had remained mum about the president’s Tokyo visit amid a flurry of news reports from Japan. But this week there has been a shift in tone as Moon’s key aides are starting to speak out that the ball is in Japan’s court. “We

President Moon Jae-in and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday pledged to further bolster cooperation on semiconductor production, a crucial partnership in the global supply chain for the most cutting-edge chips. Their virtual summit came as the two nations celebrate the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties this year. It is the third summit between the two leaders, following their two in-person talks held on the occasions of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and a G-20 summit, both in 2018

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday pledged to play a bigger role in the international community, touting the nation’s recent status upgrade as an “advanced nation” as recognized by an UN agency last week. “I’m very proud that the status change is the first of its kind since the establishment of the UN Conference on Trade and Development in 1964,” the president said at the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae. “We will continue to move for

It may take more time for South Korean people to travel to Italy without a 10-day quarantine requirement as the nation has been excluded from an initial list of countries that are subject to the Italian government’s new quarantine-free travel scheme, called certificazione verde, or green pass. Starting this month, quarantine-free travel is allowed in Italy for people from the US, Canada, Israel and Japan as well as those from EU countries if they present a digital health certificate that

Issues surrounding real estate continue to plague President Moon Jae-in, with yet another property speculation scandal adding a new name to the growing string of top aides who have resigned from their positions. On Sunday, Kim Gi-pyo, Moon’s anti-corruption secretary, offered his resignation, just two days after allegations were raised over his recent property declaration involving loans worth billions of won. According to the declaration, he owns assets worth 9.12 billion won ($8.05 mi

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday pledged full support for the nation’s shipping industry to further bolster its competitiveness in the global market and to regain its leadership position by 2030. “Our pride as a top shipper has been recovered,” the president said during the launch event of HMM’s new mega container ship, called HMM Hanul, at Busan’s new port. “The Hanul is the final of the total 20 vessels that completes the strong recovery of the nation&rsqu

A poll showed Monday that almost 6 in 10 Koreans were against the idea of President Moon Jae-in visiting Japan for the Tokyo Olympics next month. Of the 500 people surveyed by Realmeter over the past week, 60.2 percent responded in opposition to the president’s visit to Japan, while 33.2 percent said they were in favor of the visit. Among age groups, people in their 40s opposed the visit most strongly, with the rate reaching 71.5 percent. Unlike other polls, political inclination had a

Cheong Wa Dae’s recent pick of a 24-year-old college student as a senior official handling youth policy is facing backlash both from opposition party members and young job seekers. On Wednesday, Park Seong-min, a former supreme council member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea who studies Korean language and literature at Korea University in Seoul, started her work as a secretary for the presidential political affairs office. This is the first time that anyone in their 20s has ser

President Moon Jae-in remains undecided on whether to attend the Tokyo Olympics next month amid a yearslong stalled diplomacy with Japan over wartime history and trade. “Nothing has been decided yet,” Moon’s chief of staff for policy Lee Ho-seung told a radio interview Tuesday when he was asked whether the president intended to attend the Summer Olympics that kicks off in the Japanese capital on July 23. As for the prolonged feud between the two countries, he said the Korea

President Moon Jae-in returned home Friday morning after completing a weeklong trip to Europe, where he chatted and bumped elbows with other heads of state in a host of multilateral and bilateral meetings. “We are getting back to in-person diplomacy,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity. “Even though the size of the delegation may remain reduced for some time, we will continue to seek more opportunities for multilateral or bilateral meetings.” Follo

MADRID/SEOUL -- President Moon Jae-in and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday agreed to elevate bilateral ties to the status of a “strategic partnership,” under which the two countries will further enhance cooperation in a wide range of areas such as business and technology.   Moon arrived in the Spanish capital Tuesday, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to their joint statement, the

VIENNA/SEOUL – President Moon Jae-in and German pharmaceutical company CureVac’s CEO Franz-Werner Hass discussed ways to bolster vaccine partnership during a virtual meeting Tuesday. No new deal was immediately disclosed. Their 20-minute videoconference came on the heels of Moon’s summit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-7 gathering in Cornwall, England on Saturday, during which the leaders agreed to seek synergy between Korea, the world’s second-

VIENNA/SEOUL -- President Moon Jae-in and his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, held a summit Monday to bolster ties as the 130th anniversary of bilateral relationship approaches next year. Moon, coming from the UK after attending the G-7 meeting over the weekend, arrived in Vienna on Sunday. He is the first Korean president to make a state visit to Austria since the two nations established ties in 1892. With the latest visit, the two nations agreed to elevate the relations

After his first overseas trip to the US in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic last month, President Moon Jae-in is now heading to Europe with a packed agenda. The president is scheduled to depart for the UK on Friday to attend the G-7 summit in Cornwall on June 11-13 and then travel on to Austria and Spain to make state visits until next week. Despite the packed schedule, the size of the delegation has been reduced compared to previous years but this time first lady Kim Jung-sook is accompa

Speculation is growing about a possible trilateral meeting between South Korea, the US and Japan at the upcoming G-7 summit in the UK later this week. On Monday, Washington said it is open to the possibility even though nothing has been confirmed yet. “We don’t currently have a trilateral scheduled between the US, Japan, and South Korea, but I will tell you there’s a possibility for virtually anything in these small spaces where you have just -- you know, in this case, 10 or

President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for a complete overhaul of military culture amid a public outcry over the suicide of an Air Force noncommissioned officer who was sexually assaulted by her male colleague. According to presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee, Moon ordered the creation of an independent task force with civilian representation to improve the barracks culture overall. “I cannot tolerate the latest incident that has sparked people’s outrage,” the preside

President Moon Jae-in, who has so far excluded businesspeople when exercising his power to pardon criminals, may be mulling an exception for Lee Jae-yong, the imprisoned de facto leader of Samsung Group. According to Cheong Wa Dae sources, a subtle shift in the president’s tone was detected Wednesday at a luncheon meeting at the presidential office with the heads of the nation’s four largest conglomerates -- Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Ki-nam, Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung

Seoul’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday flatly denied speculation over the reasons behind Washington’s decision to send Janssen's COVID-19 vaccines for the Korean military, saying the vaccine type has been decided through consultations between the two countries. “The Janssen vaccine was the most proper option to cover 550,000 people among the stockpiles secured by the US Defense Department,” the ministry’s spokesperson Boo Seung-chan told a media briefing, refuting cla

Foreign leaders and heads of international organizations on Monday pledged an inclusive green recovery for carbon neutrality and urged joint efforts to help developing countries join the initiative. The unified message came as the P4G summit wrapped up its two-day run in Seoul. It was the first time South Korea had hosted a multilateral international meeting on the environment. “We reaffirm that the fight against COVID-19 leaves important lessons for the global response to the climate

The outcome of last week’s summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden drew mixed reactions from political party leaders here on Wednesday. Moon held a luncheon meeting with five party leaders at Cheong Wa Dae to brief them on the results of the summit. It was his first group meeting with the party leaders in a year and three months. During the meeting, the president urged bipartisan support for follow-up measures to implement key commitments made during the summit. The discussio