Tag: Korea

SEOUL - South Korea on Thursday rejected an offer from North Korea to discuss its new nuclear programme and return to six-party disarmament talks, saying its neighbour must first show peaceful intentions. Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan said Pyongyang should demonstrate its commitment to denuclearisation "not through words, but through action". "This (offer) is insufficient and does not fit the position of the (five) other countries that the right conditions should be created," he told

SEOUL - South Korea's leader warned troops on Friday to guard against North Korea's "reckless" provocations as a new dispute erupted over four defectors from the communist state. President Lee Myung-Bak stressed the need for separate branches of the military to work together to counter the threat from the North's special warfare forces, which Seoul says number 200,000.
"Through reckless military provocations, they (the North) are continuing to threaten peace," he told a

SEOUL - US and South Korean troops on Monday launched major annual land, sea and air exercises, amid North Korean threats to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" in the event of any provocation. The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drills are the first of their type since the communist state's deadly shelling of a South Korean border island last November.
The US and South Korea said the exercises are defensive in nature while training their forces "to respond to any provocation". North Korea

SEOUL - South Korea will start carbon emission trading from January 1 of 2015, local media said on Saturday quoting senior government officials, while industry still strongly opposes the plan. A presidential secretary told Reuters this month South Korea, OECD's fastest-growing carbon polluter, would start cap-and-trade between 2013 and 2015 after strong opposition from industry to the government's initial plan to start in 2013.
Powerful export-led conglomerates in Asia's

SEOUL - North Korea threatened "all-out war" in response to exercises by South Korean and US troops due to start Monday and told Seoul to stop cross-border propaganda, upping the rhetoric against its arch rivals. Pyongyang would respond to the upcoming drill, with "unprecedented all-out counteraction" that would turn the South's capital Seoul into a sea of flames, the Korean Central News Agency said Sunday.
"The army and people of the DPRK will return bolstered nuclear deterrent

SEOUL - North Korea is digging tunnels at a site where it has launched two nuclear tests, suggesting it is preparing a third, the South's Yonhap news agency said on Sunday. Tensions rose on the divided peninsula when 46 sailors were killed in an attack in March on a South Korean naval vessel. North Korea, which has denied responsibility, shelled the southern island of Yeonpyeong in November, killing four people and sparking fears of possible all-out war.
The North was excavating

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Railways (PR) is considering a proposal to purchase used 3000HP locomotives manufactured by General Motors from South Korea, aimed at meeting the shortfall of engines in the PR's network.
According to a senior official of the Ministry of Railways, the suggestion to purchase 50 used locomotives is under consideration and almost at final stage as the Korean Railways is also interested to supply the consignment at an attractive price. Prior to the commencement

SEOUL - South Korea will start carbon emission trading between 2013 and 2015 after strong opposition from industry to the government's initial plan to start in 2013, a presidential secretary said on Monday.
The decision is a breakthrough for the country's powerful export-led conglomerates which have been pushing for a delay given competitor nations such as Japan and the United States have delayed or shelved emissions trading schemes for now.
"It is no longer an issue

SEOUL - South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called on Monday for new strategies to help secure a stable supply of food amid growing concerns about a global food crisis.
"The likelihood of a global food crisis is rising due to climate change. We need to set up national strategies and research to tackle the issue," Lee's spokesman quoted him as saying during a meeting with senior advisers. Lee also called for a task force from the government and private sector to be set up to

DOHA - South Korea bowed out of the Asian Cup in style by edging Uzbekistan 3-2 in an entertaining third-place play-off on Friday to secure an automatic place at the 2015 tournament in Australia. Cho Kwang-Rae's men looked on course for a handsome victory at 3-0 up in the first-half, but Uzbekistan clawed back the deficit to salvage some pride after their 6-0 drubbing by Australia in the semi-finals.
Koo Ja-Cheol's fifth goal of the competition, making him outright top scorer,

SEOUL - South Korea made a fresh call on Tuesday for the United Nations Security Council to debate North Korea's uranium enrichment programme, which according to experts could produce more nuclear weapons.
The issue of UN referral will be discussed intensively when US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg visits Seoul on Wednesday, said Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan. He said it would also be raised when Alexei Borodavkin, Russia's chief negotiator to stalled six-party talks

SEOUL - South Korea on Thursday accepted North Korea's offer of high-level military talks to ease months of tension, but said the North must admit responsibility for two deadly border attacks. The offer came earlier in the day in a message from defence minister Kim Yong-Chun to his counterpart in the South, Kim Kwan-Jin.
Seoul's unification ministry said the North suggested that the two sides exchange views on both incidents and on "military tension reduction" on the peninsula.

DOHA - South Korea will take on Iran in a mouth-watering quarter-final Asian Cup showdown after they dispatched India 4-1 Tuesday, but Australia topped the group to enter the last eight by defeating Bahrain.
The Socceroos will likely play reigning champions Iraq, also Saturday, for a place in the semi-finals in Doha. The current holders need just a point from their final group game against North Korea on Wednesday to make it through.
Australia, who were made to work hard

SEOUL - North Korea could bring about its own collapse if it keeps pouring resources into nuclear and conventional weapons, South Korea's national security adviser said in an interview to be screened Monday. Chun Yung-Woo argued in the interview with US public broadcaster PBS that the Pyongyang regime faces so severe an economic crisis that it could collapse sooner than expected. The "energy for change is growing" and will reach "critical mass" at some point in the impoverished

SEOUL - South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Saturday that North Korea's new enriched uranium program should be dealt with by the United Nations Security Council, his spokeswoman said.
"The issue of North Korea's uranium enrichment program should be referred to the United Nations Security Council," Lee was quoted as saying when he met with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.
South Korea's foreign minister Kim Sung-Hwan said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency

DOHA - Australia and South Korea shared the spoils 1-1 in the battle of the big guns at the Asian Cup on Friday as both sides inched closer to the quarter-finals. The two Asian heavyweights are both seen as potential tournament winners but neither could find the decisive winner at the three-quarters full Al-Gharafa Stadium.
Exciting Jeju United 21-year-old Koo Ja-Cheol, who has already attracted interest from overseas clubs, got the breakthrough on 24 minutes, striking his third

SEOUL - Fresh nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea are still possible but only if the communist state ends "dangerous provocations" and shows good faith, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. Gates, ending an Asian tour with a brief stopover in Seoul, said the process must start with talks between the two Koreas. Seoul has rejected as insincere Pyongyang's recent dialogue offers, which come less than two months after a deadly bombardment of a South Korean island.