KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – En route to Kuala Lumpur, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered a strikingly positive endorsement of South Korea’s ambitions to reclaim wartime operational control from Washington, signaling a shift in how the alliance conceives of leadership during a crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane [...]
GYEONGJU, South Korea, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used a high-stakes summit in Gyeongju on Wednesday to push Washington toward a long-sought goal: the fuel needed to operate nuclear-powered submarines. Meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in the ancient capital, Lee argued that South Korea’s diesel-powered fleet no longer provides [...]
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began a tour of the Indo-Pacific on Monday, a trip that unfolds like a map of American strategic anxieties: Hawaii, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam — and finally South Korea. His message is familiar, but increasingly urgent. The Pentagon says Hegseth intends to press [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – United States President Donald Trump has described North Korea as “sort of a nuclear power,” AFP reported Saturday, as he seeks to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his ongoing trip to Asia. Trump made the remarks aboard Air Force One en route to Asia, AFP said, [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit will turn the quiet, temple-dotted city of Gyeongju into a theater of global power politics. South Korea, long wedged between the gravitational pulls of Washington and Beijing, suddenly finds itself not as an observer, but as host—and potential broker—of an uneasy regional order. For [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — When Sanae Takaichi walked into Japan’s Diet chamber on Tuesday to become the country’s first female prime minister, the moment marked both a breakthrough and a question mark for East Asia’s uneasy diplomacy. In Seoul, officials were quick to strike a tone of optimism. “We will continue to closely communicate [...]
South Korea’s Nuclear Export Deal with Westinghouse Sparked by U.S. Ruling on Reactor Technology Origins SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean government’s controversial settlement with U.S. firm Westinghouse over nuclear technology rights was driven by a 2024 decision from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) declaring that Korea’s APR1400 reactor design contains American-origin [...]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top economic policymakers gathered in Washington this week, pressing to finalize a landmark trade agreement that could redefine the industrial and strategic alignment between Seoul and Washington. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Thursday for what officials described as an “in-depth” two-hour discussion [...]
DAEGU, Oct. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The recent killing of a South Korean college student from Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province, in Cambodia has shed new light on how young Koreans are being lured overseas by criminal networks with false promises of easy money, court records show. A Daegu District Court ruling issued in May detailed the [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – China announced Tuesday it will impose retaliatory measures against five U.S.-based subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean Co., accusing them of cooperating with a U.S. investigation targeting China’s maritime and shipbuilding industries. In a statement, the Chinese commerce ministry claimed Hanwha Ocean’s U.S. affiliates assisted and supported the [...]