South Korea - The Korea Times

EXCLUSIVE Korea to restrict imports from Japan's Fukushima

A protester at an anti-Japan rally stands next to a banner mocking the Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono's promotional remarks on Fukushima's food safety. Reuters-YonhapBy Do Je-hae The Moon Jae-in administration will tighten its import quota on fishery and agricultural products from Fukushima in Japan in response to Tokyo's decision to remove Korea from its whitelist of Group A countries that receive preferential trade processing. A presidential aide said Sunday that if the Japanese Cabinet's decision to remove Korea from the list takes effect Aug. 28, South Korea will reduce its quota for imports of seafood from Fukushima, which was affected by a nuclear power plant disaster in 2011. “The Korean government has started to look into controlling the import quota of products from Fukushima,” the aide said asking for anonymity citing the sensitivity of the issue. The new quota would strengthen control of imports of seafood from Fukushima and the surrounding region, which were introduced by Seoul in the wake of the nuclear disaster due to concerns about radioactive contamin

Aug 4, 2019By Do Je-hae

[EXCLUSIVE] Korea to restrict imports from Japan's Fukushima

Seoul-Tokyo relations are at a crossroads

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, center, speaks in a meeting with senior officials and lawmakers from the National Assembly, the government and Cheong Wa Dae, at the Assembly in Seoul, Sunday. They discussed countermeasures to Japan's recent decision to remove South Korea from its “whitelist” of countries receiving trade benefits. YonhapBy Kim Yoo-chulSenior government officials and presidential aides said Sunday South Korea-Japan relations are at a crossroads, and vowed to reduce the country's reliance on Japanese imports by investing 1 trillion won to localize key industrial components. “South Korea-Japan relations are at a major crossroads as Japan's decision to remove South Korea from its list of trusted partners is a huge provocation igniting a bilateral trade war,” ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Hae-chan said at the start of a meeting of the officials at the National Assembly.“The government plans to use the Japanese action as an opportunity to cut South Korea's reliance on Japanese components and materials related industries. We wi

Aug 4, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul

Seoul-Tokyo relations are at a crossroads

Seoul plans to initiate military drill on Dokdo

South Korean protesters chant during a rally to denounce Japan's new trade restrictions on South Korea in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Aug. 3. AP-YonhapBy Kim Yoo-chulIn a move to protest Japan's decision to remove it from a list of trusted trading partners, South Korea plans to hold a joint military exercise on a cluster of islets that sits in the sea between the neighboring countries, a government source said Sunday.“The Ministry of Defense is considering conducting a joint defense drill on Dokdo this month,” the source said, Sunday. However, he was reluctant to provide specifics as the ministry has not confirmed the details of its plan. Military exercises were first conducted near the tiny land mass in 1986 and they were made a biannual practice since 2003 with naval ships, marines, military aircraft, maritime patrol boats and relevant combat personnel participating. A 3,200-ton of naval destroyer, maritime patrol vessels, P-3C anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft and F-15K fighters are typically mobilized during the drill, according to the mini

Aug 4, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul

Seoul plans to initiate military drill on Dokdo

US defense chief to discuss cost-sharing, nuclear issues

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, speaks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, at the beginning of annual talks with Australia in Sydney, Sunday. AP-YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungUnited States Defense Secretary Mark Esper will visit South Korea this week, for the first time since taking office late last month, to discuss security issues with his counterpart.His trip comes amid growing security uncertainty in Asia following Washington's recent decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, which bans ground-based cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.The U.S. “would like to” deploy medium-range missile weapons in Asia “sooner rather than later,” the new defense chief said at the weekend, a day after Washington officially abandoned the treaty, claiming Moscow violated the agreement.Esper plans to meet Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Aug. 9, to discuss a range of international and bilateral issues. According to military experts and the ministry, these include the denuclearization of the Korean

Aug 4, 2019By Lee Min-hyung

US defense chief to discuss cost-sharing, nuclear issues

North Korean prisoners killed for escape attempts: UN report

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report on North Korea's grim human rights record that prisoners who have tried to escape or steal have allegedly been publicly executed, while other detainees have been subject to sexual violence and severely beaten with clubs and metal rods. The report to the General Assembly, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, said guards make detainees undress and repeatedly subject them to body searches for money and concealed items. They are interrogated, sometimes for up to a month or longer, and their cells are so overcrowded they can't lie down, it saidThe secretary-general said the U.N. human rights office received and analyzed accounts of North Koreans who had experienced detention, the vast majority of them women who escaped initially to China. Between September and May, he said, the office interviewed more than 330 individuals who had left the country.The former detainees reported “gross violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of the person” perpetrated by security officers, Guterres said.North Korea ha

Aug 3, 2019

Japan 'crossed the line'

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon speaks during a Cabinet meeting in Seoul, Saturday. YonhapPrime Minister Lee Nak-yon on Saturday blasted Japan for its decision to remove South Korea from a whitelist of trusted trading partners, saying that it "crossed a line it should not have." "(The decision) is the second retaliation after the country imposed export restrictions on key chip materials," Lee said at a Cabinet meeting. He also said such moves could "jeopardize bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan, international free trade and interdependent economic cooperation regime, and cause a crack in the three-way security alliance with the United States." "We cannot but sternly deal with the matter." On Friday, Japan's Cabinet passed a bill striking South Korea from its list of countries that require only minimal procedures to purchase sensitive materials that can be used for military use.South Korean President Moon Jae-in has denounced Japan's move as a "very reckless decision", warning that South Korea will take corresponding measures and Japan will bear full responsibility for the c

Aug 3, 2019

Duel with Japan: Korea's inevitable coming of age ritual

A man stages a protest condemning Japan's embargo against Korea in front of a building where the Japanese embassy is located in downtown Seoul, Thursday. YonhapBy Oh Young-jin Korea cannot take a step back from its duel with Japan because too much is at stake. On the surface it is a matter of trade but, more broadly and importantly, Korea's past, present and future are on the line.The issue of getting Japanese companies belatedly to pay compensation for Korean forced laborers during World War II ― the starting point of the Korea-Japan standoff ― only scratches the surface of the much bigger issue underneath.There is Korea's collective sense of resignation to the Toynbian surmise: history repeats itself. Karl Marx in his 1852 essay “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,” defanged its predictive venom, by stating, “History repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce,” but Toynbee beats Marx as the first inexplicably and ironically takes control of the Korean consciousness and serves to arrest its development. His shadows are manifest in two ways: Koreans

Aug 2, 2019By Oh Young-jin

Duel with Japan: Korea's inevitable coming of age ritual

Parties condemn Japan's trade restrictions

Rep. Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, participates in his party's emergency meeting on Japan's economic “invasion” at the National Assembly, Friday. YonhapBy Park Ji-wonThe ruling and opposition parties unanimously condemned Japan, Friday, following its decision to broaden trade restrictions on Korea, calling on Tokyo to immediately drop the retaliatory measures triggered by a wartime forced labor dispute.The parties, however, were divided over how to respond.The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and two minor opposition parties — the Party for Democracy and the Peace and Justice Party — insisted on scrapping the Seoul-Tokyo intelligence sharing GSOMIA.They said the GSOMIA, which expires Aug. 24, should not be renewed because the soon-to-be broadened trade restrictions poses a security threat to Korea, and therefore, Japan cannot be trusted in any such security-related deal.Hwang Kyo-ahn, chairman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) speaks during an emergency meeting at the National Assembly, Friday, on Japan's

Aug 2, 2019By Park Ji-won

Parties condemn Japan's trade restrictions

Moon condemns Japan's 'whitelist' removal

Korea to remove Japan from whitelist too

Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki, center, speaks during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, Friday. Hong said Korea will remove Japan from its whitelist of countries with preferential trade status, in response to Tokyo's decision to exclude Seoul from its whitelist earlier Friday. Yonhap

Aug 2, 2019By Nam Hyun-woo

Korea to remove Japan from whitelist too

Assembly to pass extra budget bill

South Korean lawmakers have a lunch meeting with South Korean Ambassador to Japan Nam Gwan-pyo, second from right, in a restaurant in Tokyo, Thursday. The parliamentary delegation went to Japan from Wednesday to Thursday to meet their Japanese counterparts to discuss ways to ease tensions between the two countries The lawmakers couldn't meet with Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), due to his busy schedule. Yonhap By Park Ji-wonThe National Assembly plan to pass a supplementary budget bill and resolutions condemning Japan's trade restriction and Russia and China's violation of South Korean airspace ran into problems Thursday, with the rival parties sparring over several issues. “If the ruling party and the Ministry of Economy and Finance accept our proposal to cut the size of the issuance of government bonds, we will be able to proceed with the Assembly session,” Rep. Na Kyung-won, floor leader of the main opposition Libe

Aug 1, 2019By Park Ji-won

S. Korea, Japan face head-on collision as last-minute talks collapse

Politics