SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Wednesday fired “projectiles” toward the sea, South Korea’s military said, a day after Pyongyang signalled a resumption of nuclear talks with the US. “North Korea fired unidentified projectiles from Wonsan … towards the East Sea (Sea of Japan) this morning,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said without providing further details. “Our military is monitoring the situation for additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture,” the JCS […]
Tag: South Korea
S.Korean leader proposes peace zone buffering North
by Shaun TANDON UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday proposed that the United Nations create an “international peace zone” to replace the peninsula’s divide, saying the idea would both reassure the North and inspire the world. The left-leaning leader, whose diplomacy paved the way for historic summits between President Donald Trump and North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un, laid out his rosy vision for the last Cold War […]
S. Korea to scrap military intel sharing pact with Japan
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea said Thursday it will terminate its military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid intensifying trade and diplomatic disputes with Tokyo. The decision comes as Seoul and Tokyo are locked in a tit-for-tat trade and diplomatic dispute following a series of South Korean court rulings against Japanese firms, requiring them to pay for forced labor during World War II. Japan had removed South Korea from a so-called white list of […]
US ‘prepared to engage’ with N. Korea in nuclear talks: envoy
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The United States is ready to sit down with North Korea to resume long-awaited working-level nuclear talks, a US envoy said Wednesday. Nuclear discussions between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since a second summit in Hanoi in February ended without an agreement over differences on the extent of denuclearization and a sanctions relief in return. But anticipation for renewed dialogue has been on the rise after the US and […]
S. Korea tightens export controls on Japan in trade row
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea on Monday put Japan into its own new export category, intensifying a trade war between the two neighbours and US allies. The move came after Seoul announced earlier this month it would remove Tokyo from its list of trusted trading partners, reciprocating an identical move by Japan. That followed Tokyo’s imposition of tough restrictions on exports crucial to tech titans such as Samsung following a series of […]
North Korea conducts new missile tests as Trump backs Kim on war games
by Claire LEE with Francesco FONTEMAGGI in Washington Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea conducted the latest in a series of missile launches Saturday to protest US-South Korean war games, just hours after US President Donald Trump expressed his own frustration with the exercises. Defense officials in Seoul said what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at daybreak from near the northeastern city of Hamhung, flying 400 […]
Kim sends missile ‘warning’ to S.Korea, US as tensions rise
by Claire LEE Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un says the country’s latest missile launches were a warning to Washington and Seoul over their joint war games, state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday, as tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. The latest launch by the nuclear-armed North came after the South Korean and US militaries began mainly computer-simulated joint exercises on Monday to test Seoul’s ability […]
Japan-S. Korea row escalates as relations hit new low
by Miwa SUZUKI Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan and South Korea Friday rescinded each other’s favoured export partner status in an escalating row as relations between the US allies hit a new low. The two countries — both of them democracies and market economies — are mired in long-running disputes over the use of forced labour during World War II. But Tokyo, which made the first move despite US calls for […]
S. Korea to remove Japan from export ‘white list’: finance minister
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea will remove Japan from its “white list” of trusted trading partners, Seoul’s finance minister said Friday, reciprocating just hours after a similar move by Tokyo. The Japanese government’s decision “fundamentally destroys the relations of trust and cooperation that the two countries established” in the past, said Hong Nam-ki. “For this, we express our strong protest and deep regret, and urge Tokyo to immediately withdraw its vengeful trade measures.” […]
North Korean soldier crosses DMZ into South
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A North Korean soldier crossed the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, Seoul’s military said Thursday, in a rare direct defection across the heavily fortified frontier. More than 30,000 North Koreans have escaped to the South since the two were separated by war more than 65 years ago, according to Seoul government data, many of them driven by prolonged economic hardship. But the vast majority have gone first to […]
North Korea: New missile a ‘solemn warning’ to South
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said two missiles fired under his supervision were newly designed tactical weapons that sent a “solemn warning” to the South over plans to hold military drills with the United States. Thursday’s missile tests were the first since Kim and US President Donald Trump agreed to resume nuclear talks during an impromptu meeting last month in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. […]
N. Korea fires ‘short range’ projectile: US official
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US said Wednesday that Pyongyang had fired a short-range projectile, while South Korean media reported that two had been launched. The firing comes ahead of US-South Korean military exercises next month that North Korea has warned could affect the planned resumption of denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang. “I can confirm that it was… short-range” a US official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. He did not say […]
