1. South Korea and the U.S. to Resume Missile Talks July 14

Seoul and Washington will reopen informal missile talks that were last held in April in Honolulu to discuss Korea¡¯s extension of its missile range.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced that ¡°Robert Einhorn, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, plans to meet with Song Min-soon, director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau, in Seoul July 14, after holding missile talks with North Korea in Kuala Lumpur July 10-12.¡±

Currently, Seoul and Pyongyang have a basic agreement that South Korea can develop missiles in accordance with national security demands. But the two sides are debating over South Korea¡¯s development of ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometers and the range of missiles developed for scientific purposes.

If the two sides resolve the differences, South Korea will be rid of ¡°self-regulations¡± that prevent it from developing missiles with a range of over 180 kilometers. It will be able to develop, produce, and deploy missiles up to 300 kilometers in range and 500 kilograms in weight.

However the ministry official said that the two sides had far to go in reaching an agreement and waived off expectations that a final agreement will be reached in the upcoming talks.

Hyungkwon Boo bookum90@donga.com