BEIJING -- Senior officials from Seoul and Beijing agreed on Tuesday to have frequent and close communications on the controversial deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The agreement was reached during a high-level strategic dialogue in Beijing between Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam and his Chinese counterpart Zhang Yesui, according to the ...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- As visitors walk through the glistening “Nur Alem” Kazakh pavilion in the center of the Astana International Exposition site, they are awestruck by the futuristic design of the spherical edifice, the largest of its kind in the world, built to showcase Kazakhstan’s vision and plans for sustainable energy. Standing 100 meters from the ground with an 80-meter diameter, the bui...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- It was a snowy onset of winter in October 1937. The order came from Joseph Stalin to deport ethnic Koreans from Russia’s Far East to the barren steppes of Central Asia. Running out of time to gather their belongings, the Koreans picked up what little they could -- mostly vital rice seeds secured inside their pillows. The “Koryo-saram,” as they have been called, took with th...

President Moon Jae-in will send a special envoy to India and Australia this week to deliver his wish for enhanced economic and diplomatic cooperation, his office said Wednesday. Park Soo-hyun, presidential spokesman, said that former Culture Minister Chung Dong-chea will embark on the trip on Thursday to explain Seoul's diplomatic policy vision and deliver Moon's handwritten letters to Indian Pr...

Korean actress Lee Young-ae donated roughly $50,000 to Sri Lanka to help support flood relief in the country. Flooding was caused by a heavy monsoon in the latter half of May. The money was handed over to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Seoul on June 5 through the Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities, where Lee is an advisory chairperson. The actress said she was “deeply saddened by the los...

Every so often, Swiss citizens go to the polling stations to vote on issues relevant to their lives, ranging from national energy to local roads and everything in between. They often cast votes more conservatively than their elected officials would, believing firmly that nothing is free and pork barrel politics ultimately comes out of their pockets. In a prudent and wise decision on the country...

Ahead of their centenary of proclaiming statehood next year, the three Baltic countries have unveiled a myriad of tourism offers for international travelers, introducing the northern European nations as an integrated destination. As only Latvia among the Baltic States -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- has an embassy in Korea, the diplomatic mission organized a tourism promotion seminar in Seou...

MUAN -- A group of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's special envoys will visit South Korea's southwestern province of South Jeolla as part of a four-day trip to South Korea, officials at the provincial government said Wednesday. The group, led by Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will make a stopover in Mokpo, a coastal city in the province, on Sat...

As the world focuses on neutralizing North Korea’s nuclear and missile brinksmanship, equal attention should be given to grave human rights violations in the country, a former United Nations official said, stressing “there can be no security without accountability.” For Michael Kirby, former chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the issu...

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the ASEAN-Korea Cultural Exchange Year, a culinary and tourism promotional event took place at Coex in Seoul from Thursday to Sunday. Ten celebrity chefs from the 10 member states flew to Korea for the event and showcased their national dishes, including Brunei’s ilkan goreng berkuah, Cambodia’s prahok ktiss, Indonesi...

The Eastern Economic Corridor in Thailand is an axis of industrial estates southeast of Bangkok. It is the Thai government’s flagship project to turn the country into the hub of the region’s advanced industries and commercial networks. Comprised of the Pin Thong Industrial Estate, Hemraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate, Amata City Industrial Estate and Rayong Industrial Estate, the scheme int...

SINGAPORE -- North Korea has been in the spotlight at the forum here of top defense officials from around the world, reflecting increased global concern about its military threats, officials here said Sunday. “The biggest characteristics of the session this time is that more attention has been paid to the North Korean nuclear and missile issue than in the previous ones,” said South Korean Defens...

WASHINGTON -- The United States intends to welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in with maximum respect and a "full program" of events when he visits Washington later this month for his first summit talks with President Donald Trump, a South Korean official said Thursday. US officials expressed the intent when South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong visited the White House for d...