South Korea seeks to procure 112 units of advanced U.S. patriot missiles worth $404 million as part of efforts to establish its own air defense system to deter North Korea’s increasing missile threats. To be launched in the early 2020s, the Korea Air and Missile Defense program is a low-tier, multiple-interception shield designed to strike incoming missiles at an altitude of 40-50 kilometers.The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it notified Congress on Friday that Seoul sounded out t

The Foreign Ministry came under fire Sunday for unauthorized use of clips from Japanese broadcaster NHK in its promotional video on the Dokdo islets. The ministry removed the 12-minute video last Friday from its website and YouTube as the public broadcaster complained that the film uses without permission some 10-second scenes from its 2011 drama depicting the Russo-Japanese war. The promotional piece was created by a private contractor. Ministry officials said they plan to upload it again after

Top nuclear negotiators of South Korea and the U.S. plan to meet early next month in Washington to discuss ways to achieve progress on ending North Korea’s nuclear program through long-stalled dialogue. Cho Tae-yong, the Foreign Ministry’s special representative for Korea peninsula peace and security affairs, is to have talks with Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, as early as in the first week of November. The exact schedule will be finalized shortly, ministry offi

North Korea has undertaken new work to make two new tunnel entrances at its nuclear test site in an apparent effort to prepare for future underground detonations, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday, citing satellite imagery. Commercial aerial photos from Sept. 27 suggest continued excavation in the western part of the Punggye site, where the communist state detonated fission bombs in 2009 and February this year, according to the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Internationa

North Korea said it would return home on Friday six South Koreans who have been in the communist country for as long as 44 months, the Unification Ministry said Thursday. In February 2010, the North revealed that it had four South Koreans in custody but kept mum about their identities. The other two went north some time after that date, a ministry official said. Pyongyang again raised the issue in June this year when state media accused Seoul of “abandoning and saying not a single word about sev

North Korea on Thursday accepted a request by South Korean lawmakers to visit Gaeseong, raising hopes that momentum will pick up for the joint factory park whose recently resumed operations are suffering after a five-month freeze.Twenty-four members of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs and unification committee have applied for a one-day trip to the border town industrial zone on Oct. 30 as part of an ongoing parliamentary audit. The acceptance was delivered to the newly launched permanent

Seoul on Wednesday lodged a protest against Japan’s recent release of a video clip repeating its decades-long claim to the Korean islets of Dokdo in the East Sea. The 90-second clip was uploaded last Wednesday on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website and YouTube, alongside a separate film intended to reassert Tokyo’s sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, or Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, which are claimed by Beijing. It reiterates Japan’s longstanding argument that the country establis

The Foreign Ministry on Monday appointed new chiefs of seven embassies and three consulates including in Myanmar, Norway, Fiji and Dubai. Lee Baek-soon, former director general for North American affairs and human resources, was tapped as ambassador to Myanmar. The embassy in Oslo will be headed by Lee Byung-hwa, former ambassador to Kazakhstan and for international relations in Gyeonggi Province, while Kim Seong-in, former director general for multilateral trade and economic affairs, will be st

Climate change could cost East Asia up to 5.3 percent of its annual gross domestic product upon damage from floods, droughts, heat waves and tropical storms unless sweeping adaptation measures are undertaken, a study said Monday. The analysis, presented at a news conference in Seoul by the Asian Development Bank, examines how Korea, China, Japan and Mongolia can better respond to climate change through efficient mitigation and adaptation measures. It was also participated in by scholars from abo

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Thursday discussed ways to boost bilateral relations and cooperation in economic, regional and global issues with his counterparts from the U.K., Australia, Sweden, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The relay of bilateral talks took place on the sidelines of the Seoul Conference on Cyberspace, which runs for two days through Friday in Seoul. Yun’s meetings with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop were overshadowed by the tw

For a week from June 25, the anniversary of the Korean War, South Korea suffered from a wave of devastating cyber attacks on nearly 70 state agencies and news outlets. Websites and servers of the presidential office and other targets crashed in one of Korea’s largest ever cyber attacks. Seoul pinpointed North Korea as the likely mastermind, but Pyongyang flatly denied responsibility. Verbal accusations and warnings were all that South Koreans could do, as there are no international binding norms

Despite growing tension among Korea, China and Japan, the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat could be the cornerstone of an East Asia community that will nurture greater political, economic and cultural exchanges, its new chief Shigeo Iwatani told The Korea Herald. The Seoul-based organization was launched in May 2011 to promote three-way dialogue, cooperative projects and joint researchs.But its role is seen confined this year in the face of territorial and historical tension. Neither a summit

An international environmental group accused a Korean trawler of illegal fishing in waters off West Africa. The Environmental Justice Foundation, a London-headquartered nongovernmental organization, told The Korea Herald that the Kum Woong 101 ship has sent to Busan its catch from illegal, unreported and unregulated operations within Sierra Leone’s Inshore Exclusion Zone on Sept. 18-19.It cited satellite images and its positioning system.Busan-based Kum Woong Fisheries Co., the owner of the ship

South Korea’s intelligence chief told the parliament Tuesday that North Korea restarted its nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium in August, ruling party lawmakers said.National Intelligence Service Director Nam Jae-joon was also quoted as saying that the North tested a long-range rocket engine around that time and recently beefed up naval forces and artillery near the border. “North Korea has restarted the 5-megawatt reactor to boost its nuclear capabilities,” Nam told th

A Tokyo national archive has disclosed a new batch of official documents that could be evidence that Japanese troops mobilized foreign women to provide sex during World War II, according to a news report. The records describe how the Japanese military hauled off about 35 Dutch women from an Indonesian concentration camp for forcible sex services, Kyodo News reported late Sunday.The some 530 pages of documents were known to have been among the proof that prompted a 1993 statement by then Chief Ca

More than 35 experts from the Asia-Pacific region gathered in Japan this week to discuss ways to build resilience to natural disasters through improved data collection and dissemination. The participants from disaster management agencies, statistics offices, U.N. bodies and civic groups agreed Tuesday on the need to develop a set of “core data” on policymaking, planning, programming and monitoring of disaster risk management and climate change. The two-day meeting was held in Sendai, which was d

Top diplomats from Seoul and Washington reaffirmed their goal of denuclearizing North Korea Friday amid reports that Pyongyang is reactivating its atomic weapons programs while offering to resume long-stalled disarmament-for-aid negotiations. South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss bilateral ties, Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the Syrian crisis and other regional and global issues. They concurr

South Korea and four other middle-power nations launched an informal consultation body in New York on Wednesday to boost their say on regional and global issues, the Foreign Ministry said.Dubbed MIKTA, the group also includes Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia. Foreign ministers from the five countries held the inaugural meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, presenting their respective issues of interest and discussing priority projects for the next several months. Korean F

As the U.S. and Iran inch toward reconciliation, North Korea, another rogue nuclear aspirant, is vying for Washington’s attention in hopes of escaping from isolation and ease international sanctions.Pyongyang has recently stepped up its peace offensive, expressing its willingness to negotiate with the U.S. and resume the long-stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programs.But its overture, backed by its sole ally China, has been given the cold shoulder by the U.S. Washington remains skeptical a

The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan plan to hold talks in the U.S. this week in an apparent attempt to restore the two countries’ relations soured by historical and territorial feuds. Yun Byung-se will meet with Fumio Kishida on Thursday in New York on the margins of the annual U.N. General Assembly slated for Sept. 17 to Oct. 1. This will be their second bilateral discussion since they were sworn in early this year.With some ranking Japanese officials continuing to deny wartime atrocities,