By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, while in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, accompanying President Lee Ja-myung on his visit to the country for the 2025 ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, held his second bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Oct. 26 since taking office. The two ministers exchanged views on high-level exchanges, practical cooperation and regional affairs. Minister Cho underscored that the two ministers met once again just two months after his bilateral visit to India in August, thereby continuing close high
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Unification Minister Chung Dong-young held a meeting with Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea Vu Ho on October 27 and said, "I sincerely hope that negotiations unfulfilled in Hanoi between the North Korea-US leaders will resume." Minister Chung stated, "North Korea also hopes to follow Vietnam's path by resolving the long-standing hostility between the US and North Korea and normalizing relations." In February 2019, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, but failed to reach an agreement. Minister
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun met with Lao Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane on October 27, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia. The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations, countering online scams, and other issues of mutual interest, including Korean Peninsula issues. The two ministers congratulated South Korea and Laos on the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic ties and agreed to actively pursue cooperation in future industries, including the establishment of key mineral supply chains, digital transformation
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) will gradually introduce an EMV-based open-loop transit payment system to improve convenience for international tourists using public transportation. This system will allow travelers to ride buses and subways in Seoul directly with their overseas credit cards without purchasing or reloading a separate transit card. Following the pandemic, the number of international tourists to Seoul has surged. In 2024, the figure reached 16.36 million, and this year’s total is expected to exceed 20 million. However, travelers have continu
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee President Lee Jae-myung held a dinner-and-meeting with Koreans in Malaysia on October 26, titled "A New History We Write Together, the Real Republic of Korea," in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, and offered words of encouragement to Koreans living there. The meeting, part of President Lee's visit to Malaysia for the ASEAN Summit, was attended by approximately 200 people from various walks of life, including representatives of Korean community organizations, businesspeople, Korean language school officials, artists, and international organizations. In his congratulatory
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Second Vice Minister Kim Dae-hyun of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) attended the Team Korea Send-off Ceremony for the 2025 Tokyo Deaflympics held on October 22 (Wednesday), at Olympia Hall, Seoul Olympic Parktel, to deliver words of encouragement to the national para-sports athletes team competing in the Games. Deaflympics is an Olympic-level international sporting event for athletes with hearing impairments, hosted by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD). The Summer Games started in 1924, with the Winter Games from 1949, and both are hel
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee The signing ceremony was attended by approximately 30 key figures from both cities, including Jinju City Mayor Cho Kyu-il, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson, Jinju City Council Chairman Baek Seung-heung, and business leaders. Located in Georgia, Columbus is known as a manufacturing hub in the southeastern United States, where pro-business policies have led to active new corporate investment and a large number of Korean manufacturing plants. This sister city agreement between Jinju and Columbus stems from a shared understanding of strengthening friendship and expandin
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Visit Korea Committee on Oct. 23 launched Korea Welcome Week through Nov. 9 at key hubs of tourism and transportation nationwide like Incheon International Airport, Gyeongju Station in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Gimhae International Airport in Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, and Busan Port, the Korea.net reported. This event seeks to welcome foreign tourists to Korea and promote domestic tourism ahead of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and a peak tourism season in the co
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) co-hosted a “Korea-Global Fund Procurement Forum” on October 22, 2025, in Seoul. The annual event was organized to support Korean companies with their entry into the global health procurement market. The forum was attended by lawmaker Park Hong-bae, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kweon Ki-hwan and Executive Director of the Global Fund Peter Sands. Also present were executives and other staff members from
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol attended the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) meeting in Washington, D.C. on October 17, in his capacity as Governor representing Korea on the IMF Executive Board. On the sidelines of the meeting, DPM Koo also held bilateral meetings with World Bank President Ajay Banga, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and Global Head of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings James Longsdon. Above all, DPM Koo attended the IMFC meeting to exchange views with finance ministers and
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Jina met with Mr. Haoliang Xu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Acting Administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP) who is visiting Korea to attend an APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting on Oct. 20, and discussed ways to further advance Korea-UNDP cooperation. Vice Minister Kim noted that despite the multiple challenges facing international development cooperation, the Korea-UNDP partnership has continued to make progress. She emphasized that it is particularly important for the Korea-UNDP R.E.V.I.V.E initiative t
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee 2025 marks the significant 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Malawi, the ‘warm heart’ of southern Africa. Since establishing ties in 1965, the two nations have cultivated deep friendship beyond diplomatic relations through development cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. Particularly, Korea's remarkable economic growth has led to expanded Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Malawi. Numerous Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individual volunteers have entered the country, actively working in diver
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with Radmila Shekerinska, Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), who is visiting South Korea, and exchanged views on ways to deepen the South Korea-NATO partnership on Oct. 20, 2025. Minister Cho welcomed Deputy Secretary General Shekerinska's visit and noted that, following last month's visit by NATO Military Committee Chairman Dragone, this visit demonstrates the active high-level cooperation between South Korea and NATO in both defense and diplomatic spheres. Minister Cho stated that Korea will
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee There, people are still being tortured, sold, and dying. Their cries for help go unheard. The regime remains silent, and the authorities turn a blind eye. And that silence is the most brutal accomplice. Imprisoned people are beaten while chained, women are sold to human trafficking rings, and young people are used as slaves for cyber scams. They are managed not as humans but as numbers, their suffering buried in statistics. This is not crime. It is the collapse of the state. The law is corrupt, the police are bought off, and the judiciary has become a toy of powe
By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee German Ambassador to Korea Wilfried Georg Schmidt and his wife visited Goseong County, the northernmost border region, on October 15. After holding talks with Goseong County Mayor Ham Myeong-jun, they toured key security tourism sites and prayed for the establishment of a permanent inter-Korean peace system. Ambassador Schmidt, meeting County Mayor Ham for the second time, visited the Unification Observatory. There, he directly gazed upon the North Korean region, experiencing firsthand the reality of the Korean Peninsula's division. He expressed deep empathy for