Asia - South China Morning Post

Kim Jong-un stood on a cliff top and watched his navy come of age. As the North Korean leader looked on, 10 cruise missiles tore off the deck of the Kang Kon in rapid succession in a display of naval power Pyongyang could once only dream of staging.

Analysts say the weapons test on Friday was no accident of timing – coming just days before Russia and China would begin their Joint Sea 2026 maritime exercise off Qingdao – and North Korea wanted to make sure everyone was watching.

“North Korea is...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio did not attend the opening of her impeachment trial on Monday, leaving her lawyers to fight charges that, if upheld, could remove her from office, permanently bar her from politics and reshape the 2028 presidential race.

Legal experts told This Week in Asia they expected Duterte-Carpio to be difficult, though not impossible, to convict despite the gravity of the charges because prosecutors would need at least 16 senators – two-thirds of the chamber –...

A 20-year-old Indonesian woman was stabbed to death in her flat in Hamamatsu, central Japan, police said on Monday as they investigate whether a man who was fatally hit by a train nearby was involved in the case.

The woman, identified as Keiko Altaira Hanafi, was found stabbed and in a critical condition by a police officer at around 11.40am in the flat where she lived with her parents. She was later confirmed dead at a hospital.

According to the police, a neighbour made an emergency call after...

India and Japan have agreed to jointly develop technology that makes Indian warships harder to detect, in a move that analysts say takes their defence partnership to a new level and reflects growing unease in both capitals over how far they can rely on Washington.

The project involves fitting Indian warships with Japan’s Unified Complex Radio Antenna (Unicorn) system, which lowers a vessel’s radar profile by combining multiple antennas into a single, compact structure and reducing the exposed...

Indonesia and Singapore vowed on Monday that the Strait of Malacca, a critical oil transit chokepoint in the region, will remain “accessible” even as Iran imposes fees on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto discussed the matter with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Jakarta as Southeast Asia reels from the effects of oil prices pushed sky-high by the Middle East war.

The Strait of Malacca, surrounded by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and...

Singapore’s decision to open more labour channels to workers from East Timor could give the city state an “early-mover” edge in an emerging Asean market, though the economic gains are expected to take years.

Analysts also say both countries, whose leaders met last week in the capital of Asean’s newest member, are looking at a “win-win” situation, with the deal set to ease Singapore’s structural manpower shortage while giving Dili a chance to better utilise its young and growing population.

On...

Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the worst prison riot in more than five years, officials said on Monday.

Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug gangs, police said.

Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said 23 bodies were brought to her state-run health facility, and more than 100 wounded inmates and guards...

A spate of seizures of Thai cannabis in the United Kingdom, Germany, Indonesia and Hong Kong has cast a shadow over the Southeast Asian nation’s decriminalisation of the plant.

Thailand became the first Asian country to decriminalise cannabis in 2022, promising a lucrative new cash crop for a market intended strictly for medicinal use.

But four years on, with lawmakers still wrangling over cannabis control legislation, high street dispensaries have proliferated for recreational sale, while...

Indonesia has deported 92 Chinese suspected scammers and barred them from the country for life in one of the biggest mass exercises in recent years.

The Chinese nationals had been arrested in May in connection with an alleged online gaming and investment fraud syndicate operating from a flat complex in the holiday island of Batam, the Jakarta Globe reported. Others arrested came from Vietnam and Myanmar.

Galih Kartika Perdhana, head of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s immigration...

Six people including five children were killed when a building collapsed in Mumbai, officials said on Monday, as monsoon rains pounded India’s financial capital, flooding roads and leading to school closures.

A dilapidated residential building collapsed on Sunday in the megacity’s east, trapping residents under the debris, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde said in a statement.

The deaths came as heavy rainfall paralysed parts of the city, with the India Meteorological Department recording more than 200mm...