Tag: Moon Jae In

Two Koreas meet to plan landmark summit

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Officials from North and South Korea discussed protocol headaches and other logistics of a rare summit later this month, which will see Kim Jong Un become the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War. Kim and the South’s president Moon Jae-in are due to meet on April 27 at the South’s side of the demilitarized zone for the landmark inter-Korean […]

North, South Korea to hold summit on April 27: officials

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) –The two Koreas on Thursday set a date for a rare inter-Korean summit, following a high-level meeting that was held days after the nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong Un made his international debut with a surprise trip to China. “According to the will of both leaders, the South and North agreed to hold the ‘2018 South-North summit’ on April 27 at the South’s Peace House in Panmunjom,” said a joint press […]

S. Korea’s Moon: ‘too early to be optimistic’ on North

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday it was “too early to be optimistic” about the North’s offer to discuss denuclearisation with the United States. “We are only at the starting line,” Moon told political party leaders after his envoys revealed Kim Jong Un’s offer following their return from a historic trip to Pyongyang. © Agence France-Presse

South Korea’s Moon says Japan cannot declare wartime crimes ‘over’

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday said Japan cannot declare the issue of its former wartime sex slaves “over”, repeating calls for Tokyo to apologize over the issue and confront wrongdoings. The controversy of the so-called comfort women — those forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II — has marred relations between the neighbors for decades. Park Geun-Hye, Moon’s ousted predecessor, struck a deal […]

North Korean general and Ivanka Trump attend Olympic close

by Jung Hawon Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A controversial North Korean general and the daughter of US President Donald Trump attended the Winter Olympics closing ceremony Sunday, in the final piece of the Games-led diplomacy that has dominated headlines from Pyeongchang. Brief footage of the VIP enclosure at the arena showed South Korean President Moon Jae-in shaking hands first with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and then with North Korean General Kim Yong […]

S. Korea’s Moon watches concert with Kim Jong Un’s sister

by Jung Hawon Agence France Presse SEOUL, United States (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in sat next to the powerful sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong Un at a concert in Seoul by musicians from Pyongyang, as conservative protesters burned the North’s national flag outside Sunday. The show was the final set-piece element of the North Korean delegation’s landmark visit, the diplomatic highlight of the Olympics-driven rapprochement between the two halves of the […]

Kim Jong Un’s sister arrives in South Korea for historic visit

by Hwang Sunghee Agence France-Presse PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister joined athletes and officials from around the world at the South’s Winter Olympics Friday, the first member of Pyongyang’s ruling dynasty to set foot in its rival since the Korean War. Kim Yo Jong was part of a diplomatic delegation led by the ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam — the highest-level North Korean official ever to […]

North Korea at the Olympics: What we know

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AFP) — More than 500 North Koreans are converging on Pyeongchang in South Korea for the 2018 Olympics, in a historic cross-border exchange between two countries still technically at war. AFP looks at what we know so far about the visitors from the isolated, nuclear-armed state. Kim’s sister The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit South Korea for Friday’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony and meet with South […]

South Korean soldiers’ wages almost doubled

(AFP) — South Korea nearly doubled wages for its rank-and-file conscripted soldiers on Tuesday but their pay will remain just a fraction of the country’s minimum wage. Salaries for conscripted privates were raised 88 percent from 163,000 won to 306,100 won ($288) a month, with privates first class and corporals enjoying similar increases. But they remain far below South Korea’s minimum wage of 10,000 won ($9.40) per hour. President Moon Jae-In has promised to increase […]

Trump, Moon signal openness for talks with N. Korea

by Thomas Watkins with Hwang Sunghee in Seoul Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump is open to the US holding talks with North Korea “under the right circumstances,” the White House said Wednesday after South Korean President Moon Jae-In signaled a willingness to sit down with Kim Jong-Un. Signs of a potential cooling following months of red-hot tensions on the Korean Peninsula came the day after North Korea reached a […]

Trump calls talks between North and South Korea ‘a good thing’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Thursday that high-level talks set for next week between North and South Korea are “a good thing,” while also seemingly taking credit for them. “With all of the failed ‘experts’ weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the […]

China, S. Korea eye warmer ties following tensions

by Becky Davis Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The presidents of China and South Korea sought Thursday to repair ties strained over a US anti-missile defense system, but the beating of a South Korean photojournalist by Chinese security cast a pall over the summit. Relations between Beijing and Seoul have been icy since South Korea allowed the United States to install the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system to guard against threats […]