Visa gets go-ahead to prepare for business in China

South Korea's top envoy to the United States said Monday that progress has been made in improving intelligence cooperation between Seoul and Washington, amid concerns over apparent friction between the two allies. Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha made the remarks during a parliamentary audit at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, responding to questions about bilateral intelligence cooperation. Regarding the controversy, the ambassador said she is aware that "intelligence agencies of the two countries have communicated with each other" and that "progress has been made" in terms of improving cooperation. The remarks follow growing speculation over bilateral friction after South Korea's National Intelligence Service acknowledged it was excluded from a June trilateral meeting, also involving Japan, on North Korean cyber threats. Local media reports indicated the agency was left out at Washington's request. South Korea and the U.S. have experienced friction in the intelligence field after Seoul Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's public disclosure of a North Korean uranium enrichment facili

The United States and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea during high-level talks in Tokyo on Monday, the U.S. State Department said. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker and Japanese Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Hiroyuki Namazu made the commitment during the countries' second U.S.-Japan Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Dialogue held in Tokyo, according to a department press release. "They noted progress in U.S.-Japan defense industrial cooperation and reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK and the immediate resolution of the abductions issue," the department said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The statement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his willingness to resume dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, raising speculation over the possibility of renewed diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. The two sides also discussed ways to strengthen cooperation with regiona

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his upcoming trip to Asia, raising the possibility of renewed summit diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. Asked by a reporter at the White House on whether he plans to meet Kim during the trip, Trump replied, "I may," adding, "That'll be exciting, won't it? But I get along with him." Trump plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China, scheduled for November 18-19 in Shenzhen. In August, Trump said that he hopes to meet Kim later this year, adding to speculation that he might seek to rekindle his personal diplomacy with Kim that led to three bilateral in-person meetings: the first in Singapore in June 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019 and the third at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom. On Saturday, Trump said at a campaign rally in Ohio that he "gets along great" with the North Korean leader as he stressed the importance of maintaining good relations with leaders of nuclear-armed nations. Tommy Pigott, spokesperson for the State Departme

National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik has met with Greek President Constantine Tassoulas and the Greek parliamentary leader to discuss bilateral cooperation in defense and shipbuilding, his office said Tuesday. During his meeting with Tassoulas in Athens on Monday (local time), Cho expressed hope that the participation of Korean companies could contribute to strengthening Greece's defense amid intensifying security threats in Europe. Cho highlighted the two countries' "blood-forged" ties during the 1950-53 Korean War, pointing out that Greece dispatched some 10,000 troops to Korea despite not having established diplomatic relations with Seoul at the time. "We look forward to further deepening cooperation in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors and expanding it into future industries, including defense," Cho was quoted as telling the Greek president. In a separate meeting with his parliamentary counterpart, Nikitas Kaklamanis, Cho said the two countries should expand bilateral cooperation beyond shipbuilding and shipping into areas of advanced technologies and defense. Cho is on a four-

Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan held telephone consultations Tuesday to share information and discuss responses to North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches, Seoul's foreign ministry said. On Monday, North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The North said Tuesday it test-fired a "tactical" ballistic missile the previous day to verify technological improvements to a key component of its weapons systems. Baek Yong-jin, director general for Korean Peninsula policy at Seoul's foreign ministry, spoke with David Wilezol, deputy assistant secretary for Northeast Asia at the U.S. State Department, and Takashi Ariyoshi, a senior official at Japan's foreign ministry, the ministry said. "The three officials shared relevant information and discussed future responses," the ministry said in a press release. "The foreign affairs authorities of the three countries operate a channel for promptly sharing information and assessments whenever North Korea launches ballistic missiles," it add

North Korea and Russia have signed an agreement to expand bilateral cooperation on disaster management for the next three years, the North's state media reported Tuesday. Kim Chol-nam, the North's minister of disaster management, and Aleksandr Kurenkov, the Russian minister of extraordinary situations, signed the agreement in Pyongyang the previous day to boost cooperation on the matter from 2027-2029, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The "successes and experience gained by the two countries in the work to prevent disaster were exchanged and the issues of boosting bilateral exchange and cooperation were discussed," according to the report. A delegation from Russia's emergency ministry arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday for talks with its North Korean counterpart on ways to deepen cooperation in disaster management. The visit came as the Russian ministry and the North's corresponding ministry signed an agreement on specialist training and scientific and technical cooperation in December.

North Korea has opened a new defense museum featuring a wide range of weaponry, including its new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, state media reported Tuesday. An opening ceremony of the National Defense Revolution Museum took place Sunday, according to the Korean Central News Agency, on the occasion of the 81st founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which falls on Oct. 10. Kim inspected the museum with the party's central leadership, including the secretaries of the WPK central committee and commanding officers of the North's national defense ministry, among others. His wife and daughter, Ju-ae, were also present for the event. Kim touted the new defense museum as a "revolutionary treasure" that can only be possessed by the WPK and a "precious monument" that he said can only be built by the "powerful state and people with their absolute strength powerful enough to defend themselves." The North Korean leader emphasized that it was a "due obligation" of the WPK to build the defense industry into the most powerful one

Recent explosion sounds heard from the northern side of a western border island appear to be linked to North Korea's ongoing work to reinforce its coastal security facilities, a South Korean military official said Tuesday. North Korea was seen conducting demolition and border fortification work in a border area near Ganghwa Island off South Korea's west coast, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported the previous day. The media outlet quoted a Ganghwa resident who described hearing massive "booms" nearby, saying that nothing like this had ever happened in all his years living there. "Explosion sounds are being continuously heard in the North Korean coastal area north of the neutral waters of the Han River estuary on the Ganghwa front," Capt. Jang Do-young, spokesperson of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said during a press briefing. "We judge that the North Korean military is reinforcing its coastal security facilities on the North's side and we are closely monitoring related movements," he added. Located just northwest of Incheon along the Han River estuary, Ganghwa Island is one of th

A man riding Georgia's tallest rollercoaster with his son died after he fell out of his seat on the 200-foot tall Goliath while his wife and daughter watched in horror from below.

A mysterious glow of high-energy light in our Milky Way galaxy could be the remains of an extremely rare cosmic “gold factory”, according to a new study by Chinese and US researchers. The collision of two orbiting neutron stars – dead stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh a billion tonnes – may have shone as brightly as Jupiter in the sky, they wrote in a paper posted last week on the preprint server arXiv, which has yet to be peer-reviewed. The violent smash spewed out...

Around 65 campers were left stranded in Arizona's mountains after raging floodwaters submerged the only bridge leading out of Cave Springs Campground near Sedona.

'Keep a broader mind on what's happened'