North Korea has allegedly confirmed the survival of some Japanese nationals kidnapped decades ago, a Japanese news report claimed Thursday, suggesting a potential breakthrough in the two countries’ long-festering diplomatic tug-of-war. During a meeting in Beijing last week, North Korean officials presented a list of 30 survivors along with their birthdates, occupations and family members’ names, including “several” of the 17 people officially recognized as abductees by Tokyo, the Nikkei daily re

Seoul’s ambitious initiative for peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia drew mixed reactions from experts from around the world as they examined the region’s security landscape and discussed ways to foster trust at a conference in Seoul on Wednesday. About 20 renowned foreign and security policy specialists took part in the one-day event jointly hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The meeting was designed to assess President

Calls are growing for inter-Korean dialogue as Pyongyang continues to make overtures toward Seoul, yet their bilateral communication channels and six-way denuclearization talks are showing no signs of regaining their vigor. Seoul, Washington and Beijing have been ramping up diplomacy since late last year, seeking middle ground so that the six-nation forum can be reopened for the first time in about five years. But the efforts were held back by the execution of the powerful uncle of North Korean

North Korea said Monday it would dispatch a squad of cheerleaders to the Asian Games scheduled for September in South Korea in a fresh conciliatory gesture following heightened military tension. The reclusive country in May announced its participation in the 17th Asian Games, which will take place in Incheon from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. Its cheering brigade will be introduced to the outside world for the first time since the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships, also held in the South Korean port city

Just like the namesake board game, diplomacy needs at least two players. Your every move entails a message for your counterparts, while shaping your options for the next step. Seoul officials have long been grumbling about the cozy relationship between the Japanese government and the media. In particular since Shinzo Abe was sworn in as prime minister in late 2012, Tokyo officials have apparently been trying to test public opinion by leaking a secret policy agenda or pursue domestic political in

Japan’s Cabinet on Friday formally approved a lifting of part of its sanctions against North Korea as Pyongyang launches an investigation into its abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970-80s.The decision will ease restrictions on people-to-people exchanges and port calls by North Korean ships for humanitarian purposes such as carrying medical supplies. Up to 30 million yen ($294,000) can be sent and 1 million yen be brought from the communist state without declaration. But the Mankyongbong-92

Japan plans to lift part of its sanctions against North Korea as their plans are making headway to reopen a probe into the fate of Japanese abductees in the communist country, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday. At their talks in Stockholm in May, Tokyo agreed to relax entry bans for North Koreans and limits on the amount of money to be wired or carried into the communist country and allow port calls by North Korean vessels on humanitarian missions, upon the launch of the investigation. The

TOKYO (AP) ― North Korea said Monday it is preparing to try two Americans who entered the country as tourists for carrying out what it says were hostile acts against it.Investigations into Americans Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle concluded that suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report.KCNA said North Korea is making preparations to bring them before a court. It d

BEIJING (AFP) ― Talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang on the abduction of Japanese citizens during the Cold War opened in Beijing on Tuesday, with Tokyo’s envoys giving the North Koreans a diplomatic rebuke over missile launches.Sunday’s test launch of two short-range Scud missiles was “extremely regrettable”, Junichi Ihara, the head of Japan’s delegation, told his North Korean counterpart Song Il-ho as talks got under way at Pyongyang’s embassy in the Chinese capital.Speaking in front of internatio

North Korea is moving to bolster its relations with Russia as it seeks to court outside assistance to help shore up its crumbling economy and reduce its political and economic dependence on China, which has been ratcheting up pressure over its nuclear program. The two countries have been expanding political, economic and cultural cooperation in recent weeks. Ranking Russian officials have visited Pyongyang to discuss an ambitious plan to lay a natural gas pipeline through North Korea to the Sout

Japan approved its right to fight in overseas wars on Tuesday, overturning its strictly defensive postwar security policy and defying public protests and international concerns over its unabated revisionist push. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an impromptu cabinet meeting to lift the longstanding ban on exercising collective self-defense by reinterpreting its Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9, which barred Tokyo from waging war and possessing war-related materials. With the decision, J

South Korea on Tuesday brushed off the North’s proposal to cease military drills and slander on both sides of the border, calling for a “sincere” resolve to forsake its nuclear program rather than a token peace offensive. The “special offer,” made a day earlier by the National Defense Commission, included a halt of “all military hostilities” and “psychological smear campaigns” starting Friday. “We suggest taking practical measures to bring about a new turning point for reconciliation and coopera

Japan is poised to set its plan in motion to allow its military to help defend other countries, which will herald a major shift in the country’s defense-oriented postwar security policy amid rising concerns over its creeping assertiveness in the region. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to convene a cabinet meeting Tuesday to approve Tokyo’s right to exercise collective self-defense by reinterpreting the war-renouncing Article 9 of its Constitution. The change will allow Japan’s Self-Defense

In a move that has triggered a backlash at home and from neighboring countries, the Shinzo Abe administration has come up with a final draft of a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution to make it possible to exercise its right to collective self-defense, Japanese media said Friday. The decision will mark a major shift in Tokyo’s exclusively defensive postwar security policy by allowing it to use force to defend its allies under attack. Article 9 of the constitution bans the country from w

GAESEONG, North Korea ― The two Koreas on Thursday held their first talks in six months over a joint factory park in the North amid their strained relations over concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear test and stringent criticism against Seoul and Washington. The meeting of a joint committee tasked with the operation of the Gaeseong industrial complex took place in the North Korean border city. It was led by Lee Kang-woo, cochair of the panel and director general for inter-Korean cooperation distric

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan ― Full of vigor yet penniless, Faisal Safi appeared doomed to live a life without a future when he joined a Korean vocational training center in his home province of Parwan in 2010 at age 20. One year of electrician training there “completely changed” his life, he said, enabling him to not only support his family but also open up opportunities. Now at 24, the soft-spoken man nurtures pupils at the academy located in the largest U.S. military base Afghanistan. “I real

This is the ninth installment in a series of interviews with chiefs of United Nations offices in Korea. ― Ed.The U.N. Development Program is looking to deepen its partnership with Korea to help others in need by harnessing the country’s green technologies and know-how in tackling corruption, chief of its Seoul office said. As the Seoul Policy Center is crafting its new three-year work plan, the two areas have emerged as potential catalysts for development in which the UNDP and Korea can join for

Relations between Korea and Japan are plunging further after the Shinzo Abe administration on Friday unveiled a report undercutting its watershed 1993 apology for its mobilization of Korean women to frontline brothels in World War II. A five-member panel consisting of legal, women’s rights and media experts has been “reexamining the background” of the Kono Statement since late February, headed by former Prosecutor-General Keiichi Tadaki.Seoul’s Foreign Ministry expressed “deep regret” that Tokyo

The South Korean Navy carried out a firing exercise off the country’s east coast Friday to strengthen its capability against a possible invasion by North Korean submarines, officers here said.Flatly rejecting Japan’s call a day earlier to cancel the drill, the Navy held the one-day exercise in the East Sea, some 50 kilometers away from the port of Jukbyeon, North Gyeongsang Province, as scheduled.On Wednesday, Tokyo urged Seoul to cancel the exercise, claiming that the venue includes part of its

The number of refugees in Korea sharply climbed to 547 last year in line with Seoul’s efforts to support asylum seekers from around the world, a report showed Friday. The figure marks a 12.3 percent yearly increase and a whopping 22-fold growth from 10 years ago, according to an annual Global Trend Report by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. Seoul began taking asylum claims in 1994. It enacted Asia’s first standalone refugee act in July 2013, which governs the application for refugee status