The residence of the South Korean ambassador to China has been opened to the public, in an annual public-diplomacy effort to reach out to Chinese people, the South Korean Embassy said Thursday.

Georgian Ambassador Nikoloz Apkhazava is pursuing wine diplomacy, hosting his fifth tasting event Tuesday since opening the country’s chancery in 2012.  Wine goes hand in glove in the popular imagination of diplomatic work but, for the Georgian envoy, it is also a down-to-earth policy objective of his posting in South Korea. 

The two Koreas briefly exchanged machine-gunfire across the border as speculation swirled about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who hasn’t been seen in public for weeks and missed another official gathering Friday.

South Korea's president is cracking down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign that threatens the popularity of Kakao Talk, the leading social media service in a country with ambitions to become a global technology leader.

North Korea sent its highest level delegation to South Korea on Saturday and the two sides agreed to reopen dialogue amid a flurry of diplomatic activity which has raised hopes for improved ties between the arch rivals.

We must hold regular dialogue and seek common ground, even if there are issues that are onerous to resolve. We hope to see a return to this standard practice of diplomacy. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung Se, have held talks in New York, where they agreed on “the importance of continuing and deepening high-level communication” for Japan-South Korea ties. 

Given the troubled history between South and North Korea, it's difficult to imagine that the sides marched under the same flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The unified marches, also held at the Sydney and Athens Games, fell in line with a reconciliatory mood on the peninsula as well as the idea that, in the words of the late Nelson Mandela, sport "has the power to change the world."

Emerging donor South Korea has high hopes for Myanmar, and the latest step is to establish a new think tank to assist in policy, capacity building and research efforts in the country, as well as boost Seoul’s own development footprint in Southeast Asia.