SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S. President Donald Trump has gifted President Lee Jae Myung a specially designed gold key to the White House in return for the presents he received during his visit to South Korea in October, Lee’s chief of staff said Wednesday. In a Facebook post, Kang Hoon-sik said Trump handed [...]
WASHINGTON•SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea is pressing ahead with a bid for greater military autonomy within its alliance with the United States, a shift that reflects both Seoul’s growing confidence and Washington’s evolving strategic priorities as rivalry with China intensifies. From efforts to reclaim wartime operational control of its forces from the United [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The families of Koreans who were forcibly conscripted by Imperial Japan during World War II and later enshrined at Japan’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine have filed a lawsuit in a South Korean court, seeking the removal of their relatives’ names and damages for what they describe as an ongoing violation of [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The United Nations Command (UNC) on Wednesday sharply reiterated that it holds exclusive authority over civilian and military access to the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), citing the terms of the 1953 armistice. The unusually direct statement came as South Korea’s National Assembly advances legislation that would allow [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A proposal that would grant the South Korean government authority over civilian access to the Demilitarized Zone — long controlled by the United Nations Command — is facing resistance from key ministries in Seoul and from the U.S.-led command itself. Lawmakers from the governing Democratic Party introduced the bill [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The presidential office reaffirmed Tuesday that South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo are unequivocally South Korean territory, rejecting Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s renewed claim over the islets in the East Sea. A senior presidential official dismissed Takaichi’s remarks during a parliamentary session earlier in the day, reasserting that [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Both the United States and China have quietly omitted references to the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” from major national security documents released in recent weeks, raising speculation over whether the two most influential actors in nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang are recalibrating their approach. The omission in Washington was notable. [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — A sweeping shift in American national security priorities — from reasserting influence in the Western Hemisphere to elevating Taiwan’s defense and omitting North Korea’s denuclearization — is prompting fresh debate in Seoul over what the changes signal for South Korea’s security role in Asia. The White House on Thursday [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s unification minister publicly criticized the United Nations Command (UNC) on Wednesday, revealing that it had recently barred a senior presidential security aide from entering the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), reviving long-standing tensions over the scope of the UNC’s authority. Speaking at a National Assembly hearing on legislation to expand [...]
ANKARA & SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — President Lee Jae Myung’s recent four-nation trip — anchored by his appearance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg and followed by stops in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Turkey — was less a ceremonial swing through diplomatic capitals than a quiet attempt to reposition South Korea within [...]