CCORAO/PACHACUTEC, Peru ― Fresh out of high school and dismayed by his lack of resources to go to college, Orland Choque took a trip to a ceramic studio in the city of Urubamba in southeastern Peru in 2005. Upon first contact with ceramics, he was mesmerized by its sculptural possibilities. That was his “eureka moment,” he said, which led him to sign up for a pottery school run by KOICA in his hometown Ccorao. Choque, now 26, teaches and helps with the academy’s operations and administrative aff

SANTIAGO ― With Korean pop culture fast spreading among young Chileans, the Korean Embassy in the Latin American country is setting its sights on student exchange programs as the focal point for its public diplomacy.Korea has been exploring ways to sustain the Korean Wave around the globe and to make the most of the knock-on effects on its national prestige and cooperation with partner countries. The exchange programs allow participants to better understand Korea and experience firsthand its cul

SANTIAGO/LIMA ― On a slow Wednesday afternoon, dozens of teenage girls straggled into a public park in Santiago, their T-shirts featuring TVXQ, JYJ, Super Junior and other Korean pop stars. Soon, music was turned up, and the group began to walk through the choreography. The practice goes on for about three hours, three days a week. The venue has also become a hot spot for youngsters to exchange the latest K-pop-related information and products. “We also carry out online campaigns to boost sales

South Korea should be in the driver’s seat in future multinational efforts to resolve tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programs, and incoming President Park Geun-hye’s new approach to build trust and resume exchanges with Pyongyang could play a key role in moving ahead in the process, said Victor Cha, a U.S. Northeast Asia security expert.The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Tuesday to condemn the North and toughen sanctions in response to its Dec. 12 rocket launch. The North respo

With Seoul’s incoming government looking to thaw cross-border ties, it should capitalize on the North’s ample mineral reserves to help revive its crumpling economy and beef up energy supplies at home, said Choi Kyung-soo, president of the North Korea Resources Institute. Despite daunting risks associated with political instability, he cast joint mining projects as a key tool to quell criticism over the South’s unilateral concessions to the wayward regime. President-elect Park Geun-hye has also p

Opposition parties and environmentalists are stepping up calls for a thorough investigation into President Lee Myung-bak’s four-river project after the state auditor reported last week that it was fraught with flaws threatening water quality, ecosystems and biodiversity. On Thursday, the Board of Audit and Inspection raised safety issues concerning dams constructed in the Han, Geum, Yeongsan and Nakdong rivers due to substantial defects in design and construction, which would incur huge maintena

UNITED NATIONS ― The United States and China have struck a tentative deal on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning North Korea for its December rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said, and Russia predicted it would be approved by the council.The resolution would not impose new sanctions, but would call for expanding existing U.N. sanctions measures against Pyongyang, the envoys said on condition of anonymity. They added that China’s support for the move would be a significant diplomatic

Saenuri Party lawmaker Ha Tae-keung urged rival parties to put aside differences in their grand approaches to North Korea and reach a compromise to unshackle its people from oppression, based on a shared recognition of human rights as a universal value.Led by the conservative party, a bill supporting North Korean human rights has been languished for more than seven years due to partisan and ideological divides. Ha, one of the most fervent campaigners for freedom in the communist regime, said the

President-elect Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday to upgrade the Korea-U.S. alliance to tackle North Korean threats and security uncertainties during a meeting with senior U.S. officials. The president-in-waiting met with Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and four other officials in her Seoul office. During the meeting, Campbell told her that he brought with him a “road map for Korea-U.S. relations” and wanted to have a productive discussion with

The Unification Ministry on Wednesday provided the presidential transition committee with a policy assessment on the cross-border situation and a broad outline of options to help realize President-elect Park Geun-hye’s “trust-building process” with North Korea.The initiative highlights the need for trust between the two Koreas in achieving reconciliation and denuclearizing the communist country. On the campaign trail, Park vowed to reengage North Korea, resume humanitarian support and eventually

Incoming leader Park Geun-hye plans to set up a new presidential body to serve as a nerve center for crisis management and diplomatic and defense policies in order to better cope with North Korean threats and the fast-changing security environment. Her aides said the national security bureau will be installed at Cheong Wa Dae and led by a Cabinet-level official, who will be not only the chief security adviser to the president but also the top channel for long-term strategy planning, inter-agency

President-elect Park Geun-hye on Monday called for cooperation from Britain and France to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programs and build trust with Seoul and the international community. She met with ambassadors from the two European and nine Southeast Asian nations in her office in downtown Seoul. “It is very difficult now for a nation to develop without working together with the international community as its responsible member. I hope to see North Korea choose that path and ch

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on Monday it would draft a road map for boosting the country’s employment rate to 70 percent, from the current 60 percent, in five years in its policy report to President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition committee. Promoting job sharing, offering jobs for youths, women and the elderly, and improving the quality of workers’ lives will be included in the ministry’s drive for job creation.The two sides also discussed ways to increase cooperation among relat

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will visit Rwanda and Morocco, new non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as Korea is pushing for new international sanctions against North Korea over its Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket.Kim is beginning a four-nation tour on Saturday which also includes Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. In Africa, Kim plans to meet with his counterparts to discuss “issues of common interest and ways to promote cooperation on the international stag

Senior diplomats from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are set to hold bilateral meetings next week to coordinate responses to North Korea’s missile test and discuss future cooperation between their new foreign policy teams. Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will visit Korea Tuesday to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun. He will visit Japan two days later.Shinsuke Sugiyama, Japan’s envoy to the six-party talks on North Korean nuclear prog

South Korea is seeking to speed up lackluster discussions at the U.N. Security Council to hammer out its response to North Korea’s recent rocket launch by the end of the month, Seoul officials said Wednesday. The 15-member council has been mulling action over the Dec. 12 liftoff, which violates its bans on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activity. But talks languished in the face of China’s resistance to punishment against its unruly ally and the Christmas and New Year holidays. Now a member of

PYONGYANG (AP) ― Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea.“The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell p

Nearly 100 doctors have been caught for misusing narcotics and psychotropic drugs such as propofol, police said Wednesday.Police have uncovered 98 medical workers ― mostly doctors ― and eight hospitals in a two-month nationwide crackdown on illegal use of drugs by hospitals.The crackdown, conducted jointly with the health authorities, came after a local obstetrician was arrested in August on charges of injecting his girlfriend with an anesthetic that caused her death and then abandoning her body

When Kathleen Stephens came to Seoul in 2008 as U.S. ambassador, she started blogging about the host country in the local language and under her Korean name. She loved its traditional food and biking around the country. In one summer, she even went down to Jeju Island to pick abalones and octopuses along with female divers there.After three years, she had become one of the most beloved Americans here. Her approachability, professional enthusiasm and command of the local language have made many K

North Korea spent $10 million to build a museum near the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, and the museum will begin its operations in April, a news report said Tuesday.Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the museum is located near the entrance of the Angkor Archaeological Park in northern Cambodia, the place of the largest Hindu temple complex in the world.The overseas construction unit of the state-run Mansudae Art Studio, the North’s group of artists, is building the museum with