Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae has been summoned for questioning as a suspect next week over his alleged role in a power abuse scandal involving former top court officials, the prosecution said Friday.  (Yonhap)The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has called in Yang for interrogation at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 11, making him the first former head of the Supreme Court to face prosecutorial questioning as a criminal suspect in the country’s history. The 71-year-old former jud

A former special investigator at the presidential office accused Cheong Wa Dae of dereliction of duty as he appeared before the prosecution Thursday for questioning over his spying claims. (Yonhap)Kim Tae-woo, who was dismissed from Cheong Wa Dae and returned to his original post at the prosecution, was questioned about allegations that his superiors at the presidential office had instructed him to surveil civilians and former bureaucrats for political reasons.  　“I have performed my duty as a m

Some 6,500 metric tons of South Korean plastic waste illegally exported to the Philippines will return to Korea, according to local officials and environmental activists Thursday.  (Greenpeace)Some 1,400 tons of the waste, seized and held at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental province, will be sent back to Korea as early as late this month, according to officials from the Ministry of Environment. The 51 containers of waste will leave for Pyeongtaek Port on Wednesda

　The North Korean leader on Tuesday reiterated his determination to achieve complete denuclearization and also called for economic development in his annual New Year’s address, stressing the need to strengthen the North’s defense.　In the address, Kim Jong-un highlighted last year’s developments in inter-Korean and US-North Korea relations, while calling on his country to seek economic development and modernize its defense industry. 　Kim delivered the address while sitting on a sofa in an office

Defense cost-sharing negotiations between Seoul and Washington appear likely to remain tense following an unexpected suggestion from the US that the two sides sign a one-year agreement. In their latest round of talks earlier this month, the US negotiators suggested signing a defense cost-sharing deal that would remain valid for only a year, a diplomatic source said Friday, as Washington seeks a new approach to sharing defense costs with its allies. Seoul is said to have rejected the idea. The US

The year 2018 marked the beginning of a detente and peace-building on the Korean Peninsula, with the two Koreas seeking to improve ties and North Korea engaging the US in negotiating away its nuclear weapons program. A thaw on the peninsula was a dramatic departure from exchanges of insults and threats over North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile tests, which drove the US and North Korea close to the brink of war only last year. North Korea has conducted no nuclear or missile tests in 2018,

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would likely reaffirm his commitment to moving forward denuclearization talks with Washington but would also call on it to take corresponding measures in his New Year’s speech, experts say.  (Yonhap)The message of the upcoming New Year’s speech is garnering attention because North Korea has neither given any specific response to recent conciliatory gestures by the US nor engaged it in working-level and senior-level talks to hammer out the details of how denucleari

Officials from South Korea and Japan held meetings Monday amid deteriorating relations over recent rulings that ordered Japanese firms to compensate South Koreans forced into labor during Japan’s occupation of the peninsula. 　Kim Yong-kil, director-general for Northeast Asian affairs at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, met with Japanese counterpart Kenji Kanasugi in Seoul to discuss the ruling in favor of South Korean victims, as well as a South Korean destroyer’s naval operation in the East Sea. 　Last

South Korea’s unification and transport ministers, as well as South Korean families separated by the Korean War will attend the groundbreaking ceremony for a project to modernize and connect inter-Korean roads and railways, the Unification Ministry said Monday. 　About 100 South Korean participants, including Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee and chief of the ruling Democratic Party Lee Hae-chan, will attend the event scheduled to take place 10 a.m. Wednesday at Pan

A recent series of conciliatory gestures by the US would keep momentum for dialogue with North Korea alive but would not likely lead North Korea to the negotiating table for denuclearization, experts said Sunday. 　US Vice President Mike Pence was expected to give a speech on North Korea’s human rights abuses last week, but the plan was scrapped due in part to concerns about angering or alienating the North and further derailing US-North Korea nuclear talks, ABC News reported, citing a source.　St

The US plans to review sanctions slapped on North Korea and a travel ban preventing American citizens from traveling to the communist state to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to North Koreans, a US special envoy said Wednesday.(Yonhap)Stephen Biegun, the US special representative for North Korea, made the announcement to reporters as he arrived in Seoul for a four-day trip to meet with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, and other officials. “I’ll be sitting down with American aid

Military tensions between North Korea and the US could temporarily rise if the deadlock in denuclearization talks continues until August next year, according to a report from a think tank released Wednesday.　US President Donald Trump could resume South Korea-US joint military exercises if denuclearization talks continue to stall in the first half of next year, which could lead Pyongyang to conduct a long-range missile test, according to the Asan Institute for Policy Studies research titled “Kore

The US could accept a limited version of North Korea’s denuclearization and offer a reward short of sanctions relief to move forward stalled denuclearization talks, experts said Tuesday. (Yonhap)Although the extent of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities is uncertain, there is strategic value for South Korea and the US to contain the risks with measures that are short of full denuclearization, said James Acton, a research fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “There would be some s

A second South Korea-US working-group meeting on North Korea issues will be held Friday in Seoul, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, amid stalled denuclearization talks between North Korea and the US.  (Yonhap)Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and his US counterpart Stephen Biegun are scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting Thursday and to host a working-group meeting Friday. Biegun is set to be in South Korea from Wednesday thr

The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and Russia discussed ways to enhance cooperation on denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Seoul on Tuesday.  (Yonhap)“I am pleased about close communication between South Korea and Russia at a very critical moment for complete denuclearization and permanent establishment of peace,” Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, said ahead of the meeting.Lee added that momentum for dialogue

The railroads along North Korea’s east coast are not in good condition, an official said Monday after returning home from a 10-day survey aimed at eventually reconnecting cross-border railways. The 28-member team of South Korean officials and railway experts crossed into South Korea on Monday afternoon by bus after conducting a joint inspection of the 800-kilometer rail links from Kumgangsan near the inter-Korean border to the Tumen River bordering Russia in the east, the Unification Ministry sa

When South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for “independent” and “balanced” diplomacy, it was an acknowledgement that the country has been swayed by major powers pursuing their own strategic interests on the divided peninsula. Since Moon took office in May 2017, he has sought to expand Seoul’s diplomacy beyond the four regional powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula -- the US, China, Japan and Russia -- while maintaining close ties with them. At the center of his vision is the New Southern

South Korea and the US failed to close negotiations on how to share the costs for the stationing of American troops here, an official said Friday, with the allies still at loggerheads on the total amount of money Seoul has to pay.　South Korean negotiator Chang Won-sam and his US counterpart Timothy Betts held the 10th round of meetings from Tuesday to Thursday in Seoul on the renewal of the Special Measures Agreement that is set to expire Dec. 31. 　Under the current SMA, a five-year contract bet

The US wants to hold working-level talks with North Korea without set preconditions, a senior Korean government official said Thursday, amid Pyongyang’s continued silence in its denuclearization talks with Washington.  (Yonhap)“I heard that Washington’s position is ... that it wants to meet North Korea at working-level negotiations without any conditions and listen to what the North wants first,” the official said on condition of anonymity.Denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea ap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is unlikely to visit Russia this year, Seoul’s top envoy in Moscow said Thursday, amid speculations about his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ambassador Woo Yoon-keun said it is difficult to predict when the North Korea-Russia summit will happen, given that a second summit between North Korea and the US and Kim’s visit to Seoul have yet to be confirmed. (Yonhap)“The mood for Chairman Kim’s trip to Russia took form after September,” Woo told reporters