President Park Geun-hye will outline her vision for peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia for the first time during her visit to the U.S. this week.The new initiative envisions a long-term trust-building process among regional countries including North Korea, which starts from nonpolitical concerns and progresses to security cooperation.During her summit with President Barack Obama, Park is expected to request Washington’s support for the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative as well

 South Korea is set to announce a new team of negotiators on North Korea’s nuclear programs in a shake-up of senior diplomats under the new government, diplomatic sources here said Thursday.Cho Tae-yong, Seoul’s ambassador to Australia, will replace top nuclear envoy Lim Sung-nam who has filled the position since 2011. Lim will be transferred to Britain to lead the South Korean embassy there, according to the sources.“Such a reshuffle for the top nuclear envoy position will take place soon,” sai

  South Korean workers at a jointly run industrial complex in North Korea returned home Saturday, Seoul officials said, a day after the government here decided to withdraw them following Pyongyang's rejection of an offer for dialogue.According to officials, 11 workers came home from the Gaeseong industrial complex Saturday afternoon with 116 more scheduled to follow later in the day.As of Friday, there were 175 South Koreans at the factory zone.After 127 return Saturday, the remaining employees

South Korea on Thursday proposed formal talks with North Korea to normalize the Gaeseong industrial park with a warning that it would take “grave action” unless the North accepted its offer by Friday morning. North Korea suspended the joint industrial park north of the border amid heightening military tension in early April, “We cannot let the Gaeseong industrial complex be in the current situation for the long haul,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told a news conference. “Accordin

When Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party swept an election last December, an alarm bell rang in Seoul about its chief Shinzo Abe’s perceived desire to veer the depression-riddled country toward the right and revive revisionism. The concerns seem to be turning into reality as the prime minister’s far-right clan relays worship at a controversial war shrine and remarks denying the country’s imperialist past. At a parliamentary session Tuesday, Abe said the definition of invasion varies wildly by count

At the very heart of bustling Tokyo, a surreally serene, spacious shrine greets hundreds of thousands of worshippers every year seeking to pay tribute to their ancestors and lost loved ones. Albeit being one of the city’s most exquisite landmarks, the temple has for decades been a source of diplomatic feuds between Japan and its neighbors such as Korea and China.Yasukuni Shrine honors nearly 2.5 million Japanese war dead including top World War II criminals and is frequented by right-wing nation

BEIJING (AFP) -- The top U.S. military officer told China's leaders on Wednesday that Washington is committed to defending Japan, as Beijing and Tokyo engage in intensified rhetoric over a territorial row.General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting China just as the dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea is again heating up.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Tuesday to "expel by force" any Chinese landing on the islan

North Korea on Thursday demanded South Korea and the U.S. end and apologize for “provocations” such as military drills and international sanctions before they engage in talks proposed by the allies last week. Seoul and Washington “must stop all provocative acts immediately and completely apologize if they truly want dialogue and negotiations,” the National Defense Commission said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.“At first they will have to withdraw U.N. Security

South Korean and U.S. leaders on Wednesday hardened their stances against North Korea after the communist country rebuffed their dialogue offer while escalating tensions.President Park Geun-hye reaffirmed her resolve not to reward North Korea’s saber-rattling, urging an end to the “vicious circle” of blackmail, negotiations and economic assistance. U.S. President Barack Obama left the door open for talks with North Korea but vowed not to give in to the “same kind of pattern” that doomed negotiat

North Korea on Tuesday repeated its demand that Seoul apologize for “hostile” acts as a precondition to accept its proposal for dialogue.In what it called an “ultimatum,” the communist state’s top military command denounced a rally by conservative groups in downtown Seoul on Monday, during which they burned portraits of leader Kim Jong-un and his forebears and former dictators. The event was designed to coincide with the Day of the Sun, the birth of national founder and Kim’s late grandfather, K

Australia’s special advisor on green growth was appointed Tuesday as the new director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute, the Seoul-based organization said. Howard Bamsey will replace Richard Samans, who will return to the World Economic Forum as managing director for global cooperation after spearheading the GGGI’s transformation into an international body last year. Bamsey, who took office immediately, is also an adjunct professor at Australian National University’s Climate Change In

In 2000, a stifling heat blanketed many parts of Korea for months, triggering severe water shortages especially in rural areas and islands.The prolonged drought had put top water expert Han Moo-young at bay by “depriving him of the stuff to treat,” as he put it. But it was also a watershed moment in his career as it brought home to the engineering professor at Seoul National University the worth of a very basic component of nature: rain. “Then it finally rained, but people didn’t really like it

The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization visited the heavily fortified inter-Korean border Saturday amid heightened cross-border tensions triggered by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s visit to the neutral truce village of Panmunjeom comes as North Korea is reportedly moving to launch another missile that could escalate the already high tension on the divided Korean Peninsula, the Cold War’s last frontier.According to experts in

BEIJING (AFP) ― U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Japan on Sunday after China and the United States vowed to work together to try to defuse nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula.After an intense day of diplomacy Saturday in Beijing, Kerry warned Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping that the stakes were high as China’s erratic ally North Korea threatens a missile launch that would extend a weeks-long crisis.China is Pyongyang’s sole major ally and backer, and is widely see

North Korea on Sunday dismissed Seoul’s offer of dialogue as a “cunning gimmick,” darkening hopes for defused tension and normalizing the suspended joint industrial park anytime soon. President Park Geun-hye proposed talks with Pyongyang on Thursday to resolve the dispute over the Gaeseong industrial complex sparked by the North’s ban on South Koreans’ entry and withdrawal of its workers.The North’s propaganda agency responded that the overture was an “empty shell” intended “to conceal (South Ko

Lee Kyung-soo, minister at the Korean Embassy in Japan, was named the new deputy foreign minister Friday. Lee succeeded Kim Kyou-hyun, who was recently promoted to vice minister in charge of political affairs. Since entering the agency in 1981, Lee has served key posts including ambassador to Cambodia, director-general of South Asia-Pacific affairs, embassy councilor in Beijing and director of the Southeast Asian division. The Foreign Ministry also selected Shin Dong-ik, deputy representative at

Korea is broadening its engagement with Southeast Asia by providing support for emerging countries to consolidate democracy and build institutions indispensable for sustaining their growth, Chung Hae-moon, chief of the ASEAN-Korea Center, said. Ties between Seoul and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been evolving for the past 25 years from an economy-centered partnership to comprehensive cooperation in security, politics, culture and global diplomacy.Korea is keen to sha

North Korea on Thursday threatened to close a joint industrial park in Gaeseong one day after it barred South Koreans’ entry, fueling concerns about their possible detention.Pyongyang’s official media said its Wednesday decision resulted from Seoul’s conservative politicians and news outlets “speaking nonsense that we would not be able to do anything with the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.” “Military provocations against the complex mean a self-destruction of the traitor forces,” a spokesman of th

Pyongyang on Wednesday blocked South Koreans from entering a joint factory complex just north of the heavily fortified border, prompting Seoul to warn that it would take military action should its workers’ safety be compromised. The North’s Central Special Direct General Bureau informed Seoul early in the morning that it would only allow the departure of South Korean officials and employees from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. The Unification Ministry urged immediate renunciation of the decisio

North Korea said Tuesday it will restart its graphite-moderated nuclear reactor to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons, breaching its 2007 agreement and inviting international criticism. The official Korean Central News Agency said the regime would “adjust and change its existing nuclear facilities” in line with its new two-pronged policy of building atomic arms and boosting the economy, citing a spokesman for the General Department of Atomic Energy. “This applies to uranium enrichment plants