N. Korea, Viet Nam agree to deepen exchanges, strategic communication at foreign ministers' talks SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - North Korea and Vietnam have agreed to deepen bilateral exchanges and cooperation across various fields during talks between their foreign ministers in Pyongyang, the North's state media reported Thursday. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the country's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui held talks Wednesday at the Mansudae Assembly Hall with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Lê Hoài Trung, who visited Pyongyang as a special envoy of May 14, 2026

ASIA INSIGHT: What Melania Trump's absence from Beijing means SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - When U.S. President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One for Beijing for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, one absence stood out immediately. His wife and first lady Melania did not join him. Technically, that is not unusual. First ladies are neither constitutionally required nor politically obligated to accompany presidents abroad. But presidential trips are never only about policy. They are also about symbolism, optics and public perception. May 14, 2026

S. Korea, US defense officials discuss alliance goals without OPCON details SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - South Korea and the U.S. held senior-level defense talks in Washington this week to discuss the future direction of their alliance, as the two sides appear to remain divided over key issues, including the transfer of wartime operational control. South Korea’s defense ministry said Thursday that the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue, or KIDD, was held in Washington from Tuesday to Wednesday, led by Kim Hong-cheol, Seoul’s deputy minister for def May 14, 2026

KOSPI nears 8,000 as AI frenzy shrugs off U.S. inflation shock SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - South Korean stocks marched closer to the 8,000-point milestone on Thursday as investors brushed aside renewed U.S. inflation concerns and instead piled into artificial intelligence and semiconductor shares through the U.S.-China summit momentum. As of 10:34 a.m., the benchmark KOSPI was trading at 7,973.67, up 1.65 percent, while the tech-heavy KOSDAQ slipped 0.66 percent to 1,169.16. The rally closely followed another record-setting session on Wall Str May 14, 2026

ASIA INSIGHT: Trump's Middle East peace formula may lie in Noah Covenant and new Arabian union The Middle East is moving again — not slowly, but with the dangerous speed that often precedes a historic geopolitical realignment. What began as another confrontation between Iran and Israel is no longer confined to missile strikes, proxy warfare, or retaliatory operations. It is becoming a wider struggle over the future architecture of the Middle East itself: who will control the sea lanes, who will shape the post-oil order, and which civilization will define the pol May 14, 2026

SK AX signs with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT Enterprise to Korea SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - SK AX, the IT services arm of South Korea's SK Group, has signed a service partner agreement with OpenAI to deploy and operate ChatGPT Enterprise across Korean corporate clients, the company said on Wednesday. Under the deal, SK AX will tailor OpenAI's flagship enterprise product to each customer's workflows and security requirements, building generative artificial intelligence into back-office systems rather than bolting it on, the company said Thu May 14, 2026

Trump-Xi summit to test fragile détente as CEOs descend on Beijing SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) -U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for two days from Thursday engage a high-stakes and closely-watched summit in Beijing as war in the Middle East, tariff disputes and the global artificial intelligence race reshape the balance between the world’s two largest economies. While both sides are expected to emphasize symbolism and stability in public, the summit is emerging as a transactional negotiation over tariffs, semiconductors, May 14, 2026

North Korean, Vietnamese FMs agree to 'deepen' bilateral ties SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - North Korea and Viet Nam agreed to expand exchanges and strengthen cooperation across multiple sectors during talks between their foreign ministers, North Korean state media reported on Thursday. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Lê Hoài Trung in Pyongyang on the previous day. The visit comes as momentum has been built between the two trad May 14, 2026

ASIA INSIGHT: President Trump lands at Beijing Capital Airport for U.S.-China Summit The illusion and reality of great-power diplomacy seen through China’s rally and Taiwan’s live-fire drills on May 13 SEOUL, May 13 (AJP) - On the night of May 13, Donald Trump stepped off Air Force One onto the tarmac of Beijing Capital International Airport. American and Chinese flags stood side by side in the reception hall, but beneath the choreography of state ceremony lingered the unmistakable tension of a relationship that has become the central geopolitical f May 13, 2026

Campaign season kicks off ahead of June local elections SEOUL, May 13 (AJP) - Ahead of South Korea’s ninth nationwide local elections on June 3, the country’s election authority rolled out a public voting campaign installation in central Seoul on Wednesday, turning a busy downtown plaza into a civic awareness site. The sculpture, installed by the National Election Commission in front of the Korea Press Center in Seoul’s Jung District, features the commission’s mascot character “Cham Cham” alongside t May 13, 2026