With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi currently on a three nation visit to May 19, all eyes will be on his time in China. His stops in South Korea and Mongolia will receive less attention.

Seoul is an increasingly active player in the Middle East. Relying almost entirely on foreign oil imports, South Korea is economically disposed to chart a delicate political course between its suppliers in Iran and the Gulf.

Japan’s government is paying to have Japanese-language nonfiction books translated into English, with the first works to be produced under the program arriving in American libraries this month. The move is one of several nontraditional public-relations steps by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, which is trying to enhance Japan’s profile among U.S. opinion leaders and the general public as it engages in a public relations battle with China and South Korea.

In this interview, His Excellency Ahn Ho-Young, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the U.S., outlines South Korea’s concerns about and hopes for the Asia-Pacific region, including the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul plans to spare no effort to promote public diplomacy in the U.S. to prevent American citizens from having negative sentiments toward South Korea following the attack on Lippert, according to officials.

The United States ambassador to South Korea, Mark W. Lippert, was attacked Thursday morning by a knife-wielding man who said he opposed joint American-South Korean military exercises, according to the South Korean police and journalists who were at the scene.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday her country must use the "second Middle East boom" as a new engine for economic growth, as she plans to visit Kuwait and three other Gulf States from March 1, Seoul's official public broadcaster KBS reported.