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    Lee to receive Italy's highest decoration for promoting bilateral ties

    ROME — President Lee Jae Myung will receive Italy's highest state decoration from Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday in recognition of his contributions to bilateral ties, a presidential official said. Mattarella was to confer the Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on Lee during a state banquet in Rome, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a briefing. The honor comes after the two leaders held summit talks earlier in the day at the Quirinal Palace, during which they agreed to elevate bilateral ties to a special strategic partnership. Lee is currently on a state visit to Italy, the first such visit by a South Korean president in 26 years. The Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic is Italy's highest decoration bestowed on foreign heads of state. Italy conferred the honor on King Charles III of Britain and the president of the United Arab Emirates last year. The conferral reflects Italy's "highest expression of respect for Lee in appreciation of his contributions to strengthening friends

    2 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Lee to receive Italy's highest decoration for promoting bilateral ties
  • Foreign Affairs

    UAE sends military planes to S. Korea to transport Cheongung missile systems: sources

    2 MIN READBy Yonhap
    UAE sends military planes to S. Korea to transport Cheongung missile systems: sources
  • Foreign Affairs

    PHOTOS German Embassy brings Berlin techno to Seoul through public diplomacy

    1 MIN READBy Anna J. Parkphoto
    [PHOTOS] German Embassy brings Berlin techno to Seoul through public diplomacy
  • Foreign Affairs

    Korea hosts engineering, medical training for troops from UN peacekeeping nations

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Korea hosts engineering, medical training for troops from UN peacekeeping nations
  • North Korea

    N. Korea's parliament elects new judges of highest court

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    N. Korea's parliament elects new judges of highest court
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Foreign Affairs

Book launch in Seoul bridges cultures, boosts Korea-Central Asia tourism cooperation

A literary celebration turned into a platform for cultural diplomacy and tourism development on Wednesday, as Seoul hosted the launch of "Central Asia, the Curtain Rises: 12 Stories Unearthed from the Steppes," a new book by Korean academic Kim Ju-yeon. The event, jointly organized by the embassies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, highlighted the diverse cultural narratives of the region while setting the stage for stronger tourism ties with Korea. Speaking at the event, Rhee Jong-kook, executive director of the Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat, emphasized the secretariat’s growing efforts to deepen tourism collaboration between the two regions. “Our secretariat is making a tremendous effort to promote cooperation in tourism between Korea and Central Asia,” Rhee said. “We are currently working hard to form an East-Central Asia Tourism Council in collaboration with both sides’ tourism promotion agencies, travel companies, airlines and — most importantly — the embassies represented here today.” Rhee expressed hope that the

Apr 24, 2025By Kim Hyun-bin
Book launch in Seoul bridges cultures, boosts Korea-Central Asia tourism cooperation
Foreign Affairs

South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral tabletop exercise against NK threats

Defense officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan held a discussion-based exercise against North Korean military threats earlier this week and vowed to continue their security cooperation, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday. A tabletop exercise and a working group meeting organized in conjunction with their Defense Trilateral Talks (DTT) took place in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the ministry. It marked the first time in five years the DTT-linked tabletop exercise has taken place. "The three sides pledged to continue to maintain the momentum of trilateral security cooperation," they said in a joint statement, without providing further details. Seoul's defense ministry assessed the latest gathering shows the "unwavering" nature of trilateral security cooperation between the three nations under the U.S. Trump administration. The three nations held the 15th round of the DTT in Seoul in September last year and reaffirmed their commitment to trilateral security cooperation.

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral tabletop exercise against NK threats
Foreign Affairs

Arms agency chief meets senior EU, NATO officials to discuss defense cooperation

The head of Korea's arms procurement agency held talks with high-level European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials this week to discuss ways to expand defense industry cooperation, his office said Thursday. Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Minister Seok Jong-gun met European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius in Brussels on Wednesday, as Seoul seeks to strengthen arms industry ties with Europe amid the continent's rearmament push. During the talks, Kubilius shared Europe's rearmament plans, while Seok briefed him on Korea's arms industry capabilities and proposed joint research and development for advanced technologies, according to DAPA. It marked the first time that a DAPA minister has held talks with a high-ranking EU official, DAPA said. Seok also met NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska the same day and proposed forming a joint consultative body on arms industry cooperation and holding its inaugural meeting this year. Seok emphasized the need for an integrated deterrence strategy between the Indo-Pacific and th

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
Arms agency chief meets senior EU, NATO officials to discuss defense cooperation
Foreign Affairs

Korea, US to hold '2+2' trade talks in Washington amid tariff concerns

Korea and the United States were set to hold their first "2+2" trade dialogue involving finance and trade ministers in Washington on Thursday, in what is seen as a key step toward potentially easing recently announced U.S. tariffs. The high-level talks, scheduled for 8 a.m. (local time), or 9 p.m. in Korea, will bring together Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun, alongside U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer. The talks are drawing keen attention as Korea, an export-driven economy, will be among the first countries to engage the Trump administration following the announcement of the U.S.' country-specific "reciprocal" tariffs. The tariffs, including a 25 percent import duty for Korea, went into effect on April 9, but were suspended shortly after for 90 days to allow negotiations. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Choi and Ahn held preliminary working-level discussions with other Korean delegates on Wednesday (local time). At the meeting that lasted about 80 minutes, the officials repor

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
Korea, US to hold '2+2' trade talks in Washington amid tariff concerns
North Korea

Survivor’s guilt, dumb luck and the LA fires

Five homes, so close to one another in Rustic Canyon. The one just up the hillside from me, the flames swallowed whole. Outside another, two doors down from mine, five-gallon spring water bottles in a wooden casing leaned against wooden siding. When the two homes between us — one a Prohibition-era speakeasy — blazed in livid rage, the spring-water bottles exploded. A firefighter said the fire saved the water-bottle house from the fire. As for me, I have a roof over my head because of (a) Berkeley firefighters (“Berkeley???”), (b) the director of the Charles Moore Foundation, who flew in from Austin, Texas, to protect a Moore-designed house in adjacent Santa Monica Canyon and, along with other fearless souls, hosed down (“What???”) smoldering late-breaking embers on the side of my house and (c) a flood of impossible-to-deserve luck. (The Moore house survived.) When the view from your kitchen window is first mangled metal and ashes, and then a scorched lot, you spend lots of time rethinking luck, why it found you and snubbed your neighbors, how luck and cataclysm work side by

Apr 24, 2025By Peter Mehlman
North Korea

N. Korea says treaty with Russia guarantees peace, security in Eurasia

North Korea on Thursday touted its mutual defense treaty with Russia as a "guarantee" safeguarding peace and security in Eurasia, marking the sixth anniversary of leader Kim Jong-un's first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Rodong Simun, a mainstream newspaper published by North Korea's Workers' Party, carried the message, a day before the country marks the sixth anniversary of Kim's first summit with Putin in the Russian border city of Vladivostok on April 25, 2019. The two countries have aligned closely since Kim and Putin signed a mutual defense treaty in Pyongyang in June last year, which led to North Korea's deployment of troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine. "The North Korea-Russia friendship, which has been further strengthened through the trials of complex history, has entered into a new heyday today under the special attention" of leader Kim Jong-un, the newspaper claimed. It described the first Kim-Putin summit as a "watershed" that elevated and enriched the friendship between the two neighbors. The newspaper also touted it as a "groundbreaking" event t

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
N. Korea says treaty with Russia guarantees peace, security in Eurasia
Foreign Affairs

US delivering 'more forward' Indo-Pacific force posture to deter China: Pentagon chief

The United States is delivering a "more forward" force posture in the Indo-Pacific to help deter an increasingly assertive China, the Pentagon chief said Wednesday, calling on allies and partners to "step up" to be "true force multipliers for freedom." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the remarks during a speech at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, reaffirming America's security commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and stressing that U.S. President Donald Trump's America First policy does not mean "America alone." "Most importantly, we are deterring Communist China in the Indo-Pacific and around the world to deliver peace in this region," Hegseth said. "We are delivering a more forward regional force posture. We are supporting allies and partners ... Allies and partners are our force multipliers as they strengthen their own capabilities, including in Taiwan," he added. The secretary did not elaborate on the forward force posture efforts, but his remarks helped ease concerns to a certain degree that under Trump's America First credo, the U.S. might seek to cut back on its cos

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
US delivering 'more forward' Indo-Pacific force posture to deter China: Pentagon chief
North Korea

Rubio describes N. Korea as 'nuclear armed' country

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described North Korea as a "nuclear-armed" country in an apparent recognition of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons capabilities, despite the Trump administration's stated commitment to the "complete denuclearization" of the North. Rubio used the expression in a podcast interview released Wednesday, as he pointed to a series of security challenges facing the United States, including those from China, Russia and Iran. "We live in a world with a nuclear-armed North Korea, with a nuclear-ambitious Iran," the secretary said in the podcast hosted by The Free Press, according to a transcript provided by the State Department. He made the remarks as he compared the current contours of security with what they used to be 20 years ago, when the U.S. was what he called a "unipolar power." President Donald Trump has called North Korea a "nuclear power," noting that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has "a lot of nuclear weapons." The "nuclear power" expression has raised concerns that it could be construed as official U.S. recognition of Pyongyang's possession of nuclear

Apr 24, 2025By Yonhap
Rubio describes N. Korea as 'nuclear armed' country
Foreign Affairs

S. Korea, US to keep Nuclear Consultative Group under Trump administration

South Korea and the United States will keep their Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) running under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump despite speculation it could be scrapped, with its next meeting set to take place as early as June, an official said Wednesday. The NCG was launched by former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and former U.S. President Joe Biden following their April 2023 summit to strengthen the U.S. "extended deterrence" commitment to defending its ally South Korea with all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons. "We agreed to operate the NCG meetings normally under the U.S. Trump administration and are coordinating our schedules," the official from Seoul's defense ministry said. "We could hold an NCG meeting as early as June." The fourth and previous meeting was held in Washington in January, during which the two sides agreed to hold the next round in South Korea at an undetermined date.

Apr 23, 2025By Yonhap
S. Korea, US to keep Nuclear Consultative Group under Trump administration
Foreign Affairs

Acting president asks ex-US gov't officials to support tariff talks

Acting President Han Duck-soo asked a group of former U.S. government officials Wednesday to support Korea's upcoming tariff negotiations with the United States, his office said. Han met with a group of former U.S. officials and academics, including former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Center for Strategic and International Studies President John Hamre. The acting president noted their contributions to the development of the Korea-U.S. alliance and asked that they continue to help strengthen the relationship further from the think tanks and other institutions they belong to. He especially called for the academia's support "from the side" to ensure Korea and the U.S. find a "win-win" solution in upcoming tariff and other economic talks between the two countries. Campbell and the others were in Seoul to attend the Asan Plenum hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Apr 23, 2025By Yonhap
Acting president asks ex-US gov't officials to support tariff talks
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