The competition in the chip industry is an “all-out war,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday, vowing to back local chipmakers with interagency support amid the intensifying tech competition between the US and China. “The government and the private sector should come together to ride out challenges ahead. … The government will closely work with allies like the US to resolve issues involving the industry,” Yoon said at a meeting attended by senior officials, lawma

Politics June 8, 2023

South Korea is stepping up efforts to lead global peace initiatives, emboldened by winning a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council at an election Tuesday, as it doubles down on fighting security challenges -- the biggest of which is North Korea. Beginning in January next year, Seoul will serve as one of the 10 nonpermanent members of the UN’s most powerful body, which also includes five permanent members with veto power: China, France, Russia, the UK and US. The annual elect

Foreign Affairs June 7, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol praised a recent deal between South Korea and the US that allows for a joint nuclear response to North Korea’s potential nuclear attacks, at an annual Memorial Day ceremony Tuesday, as he called the change an upgrade to the 70-year-old alliance. The Washington Declaration, announced at a White House summit in April between Yoon and President Joe Biden, dramatically reinforces a US pledge to deliver on deterring North Korea amid its growing nuclear threats, according

Politics June 6, 2023

A new agency that will be exclusively in charge of representing the interests of 7.5 million overseas Koreans will help Incheon rise as a global business hub, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday, launching the body he promised a year ago to advance the country’s business ties. The Overseas Koreans Agency offers one-stop services for Koreans who have acquired permanent residency in a foreign country, who once held Korean nationality or who are lineal descendants of someone who once held Kor

Politics June 5, 2023

South Korea is preparing to play a bigger role on the international stage as it aims to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council at an election Tuesday, an opportunity for Seoul to serve as a two-year term member on the UN’s most powerful body. Running unopposed, the South is expected to get approval from two-thirds of the General Assembly, ending the country’s 10-year hiatus from the 15-member body that includes five permanent members with veto power: the US, UK, France,

Foreign Affairs June 4, 2023

South Korea and the US issued a warning about a state-backed North Korean hacking group in a joint statement Friday, with Seoul slapping a ban on the group -- the first time for any single country to do so. The group Kimsuky is known for collecting intelligence on national security and foreign policy issues involving the Korean Peninsula from individuals and institutions, and has been providing such intelligence to the North while helping the isolated country to develop what it claims are &ldquo

North Korea June 2, 2023

South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a complaint demanding the government disclose negotiations that led to a 2015 agreement between South Korea and Japan meant to settle the issue of Korean sex slaves, a contentious deal that fell short of putting on record whether Tokyo had directly forced the victims into sex slavery. The pact, signed in December 2015 when the Korean and Japanese foreign ministers released statements vowing never to revisit the issue without mentioning coer

Foreign Affairs June 1, 2023

South Korea and Italy should come together for business as well as cultural ties as they prepare to mark 140 years of relations next year, Italian Ambassador to South Korea Federico Failla said in an interview with The Korea Herald on Wednesday. On the occasion of Republic Day, the annual national holiday that falls on June 2 to celebrate the 1946 transition from monarchy to democracy through a referendum, the envoy stressed bolstering relations in decades to come depends on establishing an &ldq

Foreign Affairs June 1, 2023

Air raid sirens and text message warnings sent by South Korean authorities Wednesday morning after North Korea launched what it claimed was a satellite seem not to have disrupted the daily lives of foreign national residents as much as those of South Korean nationals, according to several foreign embassies in Seoul on Wednesday. Residents in the country’s capital received Korean-language warnings from the city government telling people to prepare for evacuation without further details at 6

North Korea May 31, 2023

North Korea said Tuesday its military would launch its first-ever reconnaissance satellite in June to monitor in real time "hostile military activities" led by the US, amid a doubling down on joint military drills by South Korea and the US. In a statement by the North’s state media Korean Central News Agency, Ri Pyong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said “careless military movements by Washington and Seoul&

North Korea May 30, 2023

South Korea and Japan are discussing launching a college exchange program that leaders of the two countries agreed on at their March summit, reports said Friday. The program is intended to open a new era by educating the next generation, as the two Asian neighbors seek to move past major historical disputes involving Japan’s 1910-45 rule of the peninsula. The March meeting essentially brought closure to making amends to Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms during the colonial period,

Foreign Affairs May 26, 2023

BKL, one of the five largest law firms by revenue in South Korea, held a roundtable with Vietnam’s Ambassador to South Korea Nguyen Vu Tung in Seoul on Friday, as the two countries seek to expand business ties. “For the last years our ties have grown strong and they will so in the years to come,” the envoy said, referring to a summit last year in Seoul between President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Vietnamese counterpart. There the two leaders upgraded their 30-year-old relations to t

Social Affairs May 26, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol will host a two-day summit with Pacific island nations starting Monday, marking the first such meeting to take place, according to the presidential office Thursday. Yoon and the leaders, or senior officials representing them in their absence, from the Pacific Islands Forum, an 18-member regional bloc meant to enhance cooperation, will discuss ties as the Korean leader looks to expand the country’s presence in the region. Participants will hold talks on the first day

Politics May 25, 2023

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Foreign Minister Park Jin celebrated the accomplishments The Korea Herald has made since it was first published in 1953, noting the insights delivered by the country’s largest English newspaper by circulation will always guide the country through pivotal moments. Speaking in video messages during a special dinner Wednesday that accompanied a ceremony marking the newspaper’s 70th anniversary, the former UN chief and the top diplo

Politics May 25, 2023

South Korea and the US announced fresh sanctions on North Korean IT workers and groups believed to be bankrolling the isolated country’s nuclear and missile programs in the latest round of bans that last took place a month ago. In a statement Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul singled out seven North Koreans and three entities, saying the individuals were responsible for overseeing North Korean information technology workers earning and laundering money overseas. “The three group

North Korea May 23, 2023