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Cargill and Seoul-based AG Meat, a specialty import meat distributor are partnering to offer premium US beef brand, Excel®, in a new concept meat store called 'It’s Meat'. At 'It’s Meat', Korean consumers can now purchase high-quality, premium Excel® beef at competitive prices. Cargill Protein is focused on making sure the food it produces is safe to eat. The Excel® beef carried at ‘It’s Meat’ undergoes a seven-step, regulated production system, ensuring safe handling from the feeding environment to product packaging. In addition, micro-sized pathogens are accurately removed through a new scientific process offered by Cargill Protein globally to support...

Recent negotiations between North Korea's Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump have provided a glimmer of hope for the hermit kingdom's economic outlook. Markets are now watching to see whether the North Korean leader follows through with his pledge to denuclearise. The next step will be policy reforms, which will open North Korea's economy to foreign investors. Credit Suisse analyst Trang Thuy Le estimates North Korea could become a $100 billion economy within 10 years if it takes a path towards modernisation. Even it happens, a $100 billion economy still comprises just 0.1% of today's global GDP....

SEOUL, South Korea — With a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps, the U.S.-led United Nations Command and South Korea on Friday repatriated the remains of two soldiers found decades after they were killed in the Korean War. It was a somber reminder of the importance both countries place on the return of lost troops amid hopes that North Korea will follow through on a commitment to return more war dead. The North skipped a meeting planned Thursday in the Demilitarized Zone to discuss the issue, but State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said they had offered to meet Sunday...

South Korea has no plans to discuss arms reduction with North Korea until the country has made progress on denuclearization, Seoul’s defense minister said Thursday, placing priority on building trust amid persistent doubt over Pyongyang’s denuclearization pledge. During a meeting with reporters, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said confidence-building measures will begin with basic processes -- such as reconnecting military communication lines and disarming the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. Once trust is built with North Korea and a detailed road map for denuclearization emerges, the two Koreas can move beyond their working-level military talks and convene a ministerial meeting to discuss...

More than 210,000 people have signed a petition on the web site of the South Korean president’s office demanding that an “abominable” gay pride festival scheduled to take place in central Seoul this weekend be cancelled. The three-day Seoul Queer Culture Festival is marking its 19th anniversary this year and will include art exhibitions and a film festival. The highlight of the event will be the Seoul Queer Parade on Saturday afternoon around Seoul Plaza, the historic square in front of the city’s old City Hall that was the fulcrum of the March 1919 independence movement and the June 1987...

After a 19-gun salute wreathed the parade ground at Camp Humphreys in white smoke on June 29, South Korea’s Minister of National Defense, Song Young-moo, and United States Forces Korea (USFK) Commander, General Vincent Brooks, cut the ribbon at the United Nations Command and USFK’s new headquarters. The massive $10.8 billion garrison in Pyeongtaek—America’s largest overseas military base—is in the final stage of a more than decade-long expansion project. About 45 miles south of the joint command’s former headquarters in metropolitan Seoul, it is expected to house nearly 45,000 troops, contractors, and family members by 2022, following the largest peacetime...

President Donald Trump released a letter he recently received from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and praised the "great progress" being made in talks with Pyongyang. The letter is dated July 6, and was given to Secretary of State Pompeo delegation to deliver to Trump while the group was in Pyongyang last week to continue talks on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, senior administration officials tell CNN. "A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea. Great progress being made," Trump said in a tweet that also included a copy of the correspondence from Kim....

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday (Jul 12) that North Korea's criticism of the United States after recent talks on denuclearisation was part of its strategy and negotiations between them are on the "right track". North Korea accused the United States on Saturday of making "gangster-like" demands in the talks in North Korea late last week, contradicting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said the old enemies had made progress. Moon, speaking in Singapore during a state visit, said that talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula between North Korea and the United States may face...

Korean is rapidly growing in popularity, in a language-learning boom driven by the popularity of the country's pop stars. A desire to learn the lyrics of K-Pop hits like Gangnam Style has boosted the Korean language's popularity explode in countries like the US, Canada, Thailand and Malaysia. A report by the Modern Language Association shows that Korean uptake in US universities rose by almost 14% between 2013 and 2016, while overall language enrolment was in decline. The latest statistics show 14,000 students are learning Korean in the US, compared to only 163 two decades earlier. The language learning website Duolingo...

Kim Jong Un put potatoes ahead of Mike Pompeo during a US visit to agree denuclearisation details, state media has suggested. The US secretary of state visited Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to agree details of a deal made during June's historic summit between Donald Trump and the North Korean dictator. However Mr Kim has not been seen in public for seven days, with every official move usually documented by news agency KCNA. During Mr Pompeo's trip relations between the US and North Korea appeared to take a dive as Pyongyang accused the US of a "gangster-like...

Does Iran really want to nuke Israel? Is Israel stronger than Iran? A top security expert explains Israel ranked eighth most powerful country in the world North Korea expanded missile facility during talks with Trump, analysts say Pompeo downplays North Korea's rebuke of 'gangster-like' denuclearization demands North Korea reportedly extended an offer to Israel in 1999 to nix its agreements to sell missile technology to Iran and other enemy states that posed a threat to the Jewish state at the time - if Israel paid Pyongyang $1 billion in cash. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal published...

Mike Pompeo’s visit wasn’t it. But the visit hinted at what it might look like. One eight-word assumption underlies American and South Korean negotiations with Kim Jong Un: “North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons.” That’s what the analyst Cheon Seong Whun told me ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang this past weekend. For his part, Cheon, a security adviser in the conservative administration of former South Korean President Park Geun Hye, sees not a “scintilla of hint” that the North Korean leader is prepared to do so, despite Kim’s vague promise to Donald Trump...

It has taken almost 70 years to heal the breach in the Koreas and the threat it represents. But Donald Trump has succeeded where all the others presidents have failed. Strong sanctions laid the groundwork, but a prospect for peace is almost entirely due to the personal vision of President Trump. Trump’s triumph comes from skilled negotiation. In effect Trump gave North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a choice of isolation and poverty or denuclearization and prosperity. Trump has shown the North Korean leader the economic advantage of ending his isolation. Trump has introduced him to the global world of...

North Korea's vitriolic criticism of the U.S. following a first round of nuclear negotiations went out of its way to spare one person: President Donald Trump. In a statement issued just hours after the two-day talks finished on Saturday, North Korea accused the U.S. side of a "unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization," then added, "We still cherish our good faith in President Trump." On one level, the sheen of last month's Singapore summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with broad smiles and handshakes, has yet to wear off. But on another, North Korea may be...

HANOI, Vietnam — Undeterred by a blistering rebuke of his efforts to forge a denuclearization deal with North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday appealed for North Korea’s leadership to follow Vietnam’s path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States. Pompeo called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to replicate Vietnam’s “miracle” of economic growth by improving ties with the U.S., vowing that America keeps its promises with former foes. Speaking to members of the U.S.-Vietnamese business community in Hanoi, Pompeo said Vietnam’s experience since the normalization of relations with the U.S. in 1995 should...

How did the people go from transplanting rice to downloading torrents in just a few decades? On a recent evening at Ttobagi Driver’s Restaurant in Seoul’s Gwanak District, I surreptitiously started a timer upon placing my order. The waitress strolled off in a leisurely fashion, returning with kimchi and other side dishes just two minutes and 20 seconds later. One and half minutes after that, a clay bowl of ppyeodagwi haejangguk (pork-spine ‘hangover’ soup) was set on the table, steaming furiously. It’s remarkable enough that such service exists in a country where tipping is not practiced. More remarkable still, though,...

On Saturday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough accused President Donald Trump of forcing the summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for the headlines. “Proving once again that only fools rush in, Trump forced a summit for cheap headlines,” Scarborough wrote. He added: “In the process, he gave legitimacy to the most oppressive communist regime on the planet, further damaged the United States and made himself look like a fool.” He also included a link to a Washington Post article that read, in part: “In a sharp signal that denuclearization negotiations with North Korea will be drawn out and difficult,...

Sunhee, female, arrived in South Korea in 2014 Some people think that because I am studying hair design and working in a beauty salon that I don't need English, but that is not true. There are so many things about my work that require English, and of course there are also foreign customers that I need to communicate with properly. If I make a mistake because of English, then of course they will blame me and say that I made a mistake because I'm from North Korea. "I have attended many workshops and career fairs where it is clear that...

North Korea has accused the US of using "gangster-like" tactics to push it towards nuclear disarmament after a fresh round of high-level talks. It branded the US attitude at the meeting as "extremely troubling". The statement, by an unnamed foreign ministry official, gave a starkly different account from one provided by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just hours before. He had said progress was made during his two-day visit to Pyongyang. It is the first time he has visited North Korea since a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore....

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sees a different future for his country, as America’s top diplomat heads to Pyongyang for talks on denuclearization. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Montana, Trump said: “I really believe that he sees a different future for the North Koreans. I hope that’s true.”(continued)