Free Republic

The economy is roaring, the courts are turning right and trade wars are not producing defeats. As the president’s approval rating creeps up, is it all going right for Republicans? A strong economy with joblessness at its lowest rate for nearly half a century. A new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Hopes of peace in the Korean peninsula. No major terrorist attacks on the homeland. A week that began with cheers at the White House for a new supreme court justice and ended with the release of an American pastor from jail in Turkey. An alien who landed in...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on the U.S. to officially declare an end to the Korean War during an interview Friday, adding that the North had “promised complete denuclearization.” “If North Korea takes certain measures, the end-of-war declaration would be a political statement that would announce that the long-standing hostile relations between Pyongyang and Washington had ended,” Moon told the BBC, adding that he wanted the declaration to happen at the “earliest possible date.” The Korean War, which began in 1950, technically never ended, as only an armistice was signed in 1953. It will only officially be declared over...

Could the Korean peninsula be the world’s next epicentre of change? Today North Korea has an estimated gross domestic product of US$28 billion, similar in size to Cameroon. And yet, by 2050, it is possible that a more economically integrated Korean peninsula could range in size from US$4 to US$6.4 trillion, with the North accounting for around a quarter of that total. That would put the Korean peninsula, if measured as a single economy, roughly on par with Japan, Germany and the UK – and trailing only China, the US and India. To achieve a prize this size, huge unanswered...

South Korea’s culture minister put an end to the debate surrounding whether BTS members would be exempted from military service during a parliamentary audit Wednesday. “All of the BTS members say they will definitely enlist for military service,” said Do Jong-hwan who heads the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. His remarks came as Rep. Cho Kyung-tae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party had asked about Do’s stance on the recent contentious issue: whether BTS members should be granted conscription exemptions on the grounds of the band’s flourishing music career. The debate was initially sparked by a lawmaker...

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) -- More than 48,000 foreigners came to South Korea last year to get cosmetic surgery, spending some 215 billion won (US$189.12 million), health ministry data showed on Thursday. The numbers provided to Rep. Nam In-soon of the ruling Democratic Party for a parliamentary audit showed 397,882 foreign patients visited South Korea last year and paid 639.9 billion won in medical fees. The numbers are down 6.5 percent for the volume of patients and down 25.6 percent for the amount of money spent. Corresponding figures for plastic surgery patients, however, increased. There were 968 more foreigners who...

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was pleased with ongoing discussions with North Korea, adding he would like a future summit with the country's leader Kim Jong Un at his Mar-a-Lago estate or on North Korean territory. Trump's comments come after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim in Pyongyang to further denuclearization efforts on the Korean Peninsula. Following the meeting, Kim agreed to allow outside nuclear inspectors into the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site to prove that it had been irrevocably dismantled, but the North Korean leader did not make any promises to fully denuclearize the country without significant...

The King Sejong Institute Foundation — part of the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — operates 174 language centers in 57 countries. IRVINE, Calif. — The South Korean government has chosen a Southern California language program to become part of its global initiative to advance the Korean language. The King Sejong Institute Foundation — which is part of the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — operates 174 language centers in 57 countries as a way to encourage non-native speakers to learn Korean. This year, it named 16 new sites, including the Korean American Center...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to allow international inspectors into a key nuclear testing site, signaling a step forward in Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. After meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Sunday, Pompeo told journalists in Seoul that the leader had agreed to open up the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site to inspectors, according to a pool report. North Korea claims to have destroyed the site. When asked for a date on the inspection, Pompeo responded: "As soon as we get it logistically worked out. Chairman...

Kim Jong-un has said he expects “great progress would surely be made” on issues between North Korea and the US after secretary of state Mike Pompeo visited Pyonyang for “productive and wonderful talks”. Kim “explained in detail the proposals for solving the denuclearization issue”, according to paraphrased remarks reported by the official Korean Central News Agency, but neither side has revealed those plans. Kim also said he was confident relations between the two countries would “continue to develop favorably in the future” and expected a second summit with Donald Trump to be held “sooner or later”. The two countries will...

We read about the coming trade wars with China and our get tough policy with North Korea. Trump has definitley shown Asia, that we’re no longer patsies. But can you blame them for treating us poorly and with contempt. Bush and Obama were a joke... This was our ambassador to Japan during the Obama years. This is her number one accomplishment. https://nypost.com/2016/12/21/caroline-kennedy-koi-dance-video-goes-viral-rightfully/

SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that in his meeting with Kim Jong-un on Sunday, the leader of North Korea had agreed to allow inspectors into a key nuclear testing site that the North has claimed it blew up, a down payment on the country’s commitment to denuclearize the country. Mr. Pompeo, whose planned trip to the North in August was canceled by President Trump because of a lack of progress, described his few hours on the ground in Pyongyang, the capital, as a “good trip.” The two men discussed “the upcoming second summit” between Mr....

FULL TITLE: Pompeo has 'very successful morning' with Kim Jong Un, as talks for second major summit with Trump continue Just hours after President Trump touted his efforts to denuclearize North Korea at a boisterous rally Saturday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters he had a "very productive" meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Sunday. Although there were no immediate indications the secretary of state had arranged for a second major summit between Trump and Kim, both leaders have publicly voiced support for another meeting. The jovial feeling during Pompeo's fourth trip to...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out against President Donald Trump in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, blasting his anti-press rhetoric, the retreat from the world stage, and his insults of U.S. allies.

President Moon Jae-in on Friday reiterated his commitment to peace and eventual reunification with North Korea, saying he dreams of a country that overseas Koreans can visit overland by car and train. Moon made the remark during a Korean Day ceremony before hundreds of representatives of overseas Koreans from around the world, stressing that the two Koreas are moving beyond national division and confrontation toward peace. "A dream of the South and the North becoming one in lasting peace. A dream of you and your children visiting your home country by car and train. A dream of (us) prospering throughout...

A hardline adviser speaks out against the president's lovey-dovey diplomacy with Kim Jong Un. On Wednesday—just after Donald Trump gushed about falling “in love” with North Korea’s dictator and ahead of another trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang to prepare for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un—Lindsey Graham delivered a stark message to the U.S. president: End the lovefest. “I’m telling President Trump, ‘Enough with I love you,’” said the Republican senator, a close ally of Trump’s who had spoken to the president right before joining Jeffrey Goldberg on stage at The Atlantic Festival....

SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan should refrain from flying the “Rising Sun” flag on a warship in a fleet review planned in South Korea next week, a North Korean propaganda website said on Friday, joining South Koreans in the latest spat over the countries’ colonial history. ...“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said. “Planning to enter flying the ‘Rising Sun’ flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people.”

TOKYO -- Japan's first submarine powered by lithium-ion batteries was launched on Thursday, symbolizing domestic defense contractors' hopes that innovations can allow the industry to survive amid renewed pressure from Washington to procure more American military gear. The 84-meter Oryu was lowered into the water at the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the vessel's developer, after being christened with a bottle of sake. The submarine can reach speeds of roughly 20 knots and displaces 2,950 tons. It will be delivered to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in March 2020. The Oryu is the eleventh submarine based on the Soryu's...

Winner of the award announced on Friday in Oslo The winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize is set to be announced on Friday in Oslo, and while the committee does not make the nominees public there has been plenty of speculation over who could win the prestigious award. All that is known is there are 331 nominees – 216 individuals and 115 groups – according to the Nobel committee. The selection process is highly secretive, but here is a list of potential winners based on bookmakers, that includes controversial figures such as Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. Kim Jong-un...

Bringing it in just under the wire, negotiators representing Mexico, Canada, and the United States announced a new trade deal, to be named the USMCA, on Sunday, September 30, enabling the replacement for NAFTA for which many have long clamored. With the agreement to switch to this new program, the three nations are taking some steps – however small – back in the direction of the goals that Free Trade Agreements have always promised to support, but which have been largely forgotten in the quest for their side effects. Free Trade Agreements, in fact, are not designed to reduce taxes...

""Pompeo Terminates Iran Treaty After UN Court Hands Tehran A Victory In Sanctions Lawsuit Against Washington"" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday the U.S. will terminate a 63-year-old treaty with Iran, hours after a top United Nations court ruled in favor of Tehran in a lawsuit challenging U.S. sanctions. Pompeo said the abrogation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity was “39 years overdue,” referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran that resulted in the overthrow of the U.S.-friendly shah. Until Pompeo’s announcement, the Treaty of Amity had remained in force even though Washington and Tehran have not had...