South Korea will more than double the number of its female soldiers to 2,450 by 2022 as part of defense reform, the ministry of National Defense said Wednesday.Currently, there are 1,100 active-duty female troops, 5.5 percent of the country's 625,000-strong armed forces.The ministry plans to rai

Prosecutors on Tuesday maintained their sentence demand for two former aides of ousted President Park Geun-hye for allegedly keeping a secret register of artists deemed critical of her government to disadvantage them in various ways.Special Counsel in charge of the case asked the appellate court to

South Korea will search for ways to bring North Korea back to dialogue to negotiate a peaceful resolution of its nuclear weapons development, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Monday, labeling the issue as the biggest diplomatic challenge facing the South."The North Korean nuclear issue still re

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top diplomat will visit Japan this week to discuss North Korea and pending bilateral issues, the foreign ministry here said Sunday.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will leave for Tokyo on Tuesday for a two-day stay for talks with her Japanese counterpart T

The United Nations is expected to adopt a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights violations for the 13th consecutive year this week, diplomatic sources said Sunday.The U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Tuesday to deal with a new draft resolution on North Korea

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for increased cooperation between his country and Chongqing in a meeting with the city's Communist Party leader, who is also China's rising political star."I believe economic cooperation between South Korea and Chongqing will greatly contribute to C

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday vowed efforts to boost his country's economic cooperation with China, saying cooperation between the countries will benefit both.The president also vowed efforts to link his New North and New South policies with China's One Belt, One Road develo

A close aide of ousted President Park Geun-hye was arrested early Friday for his alleged involvement in the state spy agency's illegal surveillance of government officials.The Seoul Central District Court approved the warrant for Woo Byung-woo, a former senior presidential secretary for civil af

A senior foreign ministry official will protest the European Union's recent blacklisting of South Korea as a tax haven country during a meeting in Brussels Friday, a government source said.Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon left for Brussels on Thursday to attend a regul

Prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 25-year prison term for a woman at the center of a corruption scandal that led to the ousting of former President Park Geun-hye early this year.Choi Soon-sil, 61, Park's longtime friend and confidante, was arrested and indicted in November last year on 18 charg

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a former four-star Army general, known for bullying soldiers assigned to his residence, should be tried in a civilian court because he is considered to have been discharged from the military after he was transfered to a temporary position.Park Chan-ju, who serv

The leaders of South Korea and China were set to hold a bilateral summit here Thursday as their countries are seeking to find ways to peacefully end North Korea's nuclear ambitions and also normalize their ties estranged by the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.The meeti

South Korean President Moon Jae-in left for China Wednesday for a four-day state visit that will include talks with President Xi Jinping.The two leaders plan to hold their third bilateral summit on Thursday focusing on North Korea's growing threats and ways to improve bilateral ties, according t

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday that Washington is willing to begin talks with North Korea without preconditions.Tillerson's remark came as tensions have increased over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs with its latest test of an intercontinental ballist

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has sent his chief of staff as a special envoy to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Lebanon, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday.Im Jong-seok paid a visit to Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, earlier Sunday, one day after h

The National Assembly approved the government's budget for next year early Wednesday as the main opposition party boycotted the vote to express its objection to some contentious points in the bill, such as the creation of thousands of new government jobsThe 428.8 trillion won (US$394.4 billion)

South Korea's state pension fund operator will introduce a set of guidelines next year to promote its role as the nation's biggest institutional investor, the welfare minister said Friday.Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo said it is a global trend to adopt the so-called stewardship

Choo Mi-ae, the leader of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, embarked on a four-day trip to Beijing on Thursday to attend an international political conference and for talks with top Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping.Speaking to the press before her departure, Choo said that

South Korea and Japan's foreign ministers had a telephone conversation Wednesday to discuss North Korea's launch of a new, longer-range ballistic missile early in the day and how to respond to the provocation, the South Korean foreign ministry said.In the 20-minute conversation that began at

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday more "major sanctions" will be imposed on North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launch."Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the provocative actions of North Korea," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Additional major sanction