Asia - South China Morning Post

Japan’s prime minister touched down in Australia on Sunday with a set of shared anxieties – about Trump, China and the fragility of supply chains that the two insular nations have long relied upon – to which she sought some small relief.

By the time she departed, Sanae Takaichi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had signed an economic security pact, unlocked nearly US$1 billion in critical minerals funding and laid the groundwork for what observers describe as the most comprehensive...

A South Korean appellate court judge who presided over a high-profile case involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee was found dead early Wednesday morning, police said.

Shin Jong-oh, who had overturned a lower court’s not guilty verdict and imposed a harsher sentence on Kim, was discovered with severe injuries in a flower bed near the Seoul High Court building in Seocho district, southern Seoul.

He was pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.

Police suspect the 55-year-old died after...

Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was once one of the most visible faces of Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, a tough-talking national police chief who was seen as the hatchet man carrying out the former Philippine president’s crackdown against alleged criminals of the narcotics trade.

Now a senator, Dela Rosa has somewhat fallen off the radar – for six months, he has not appeared for work after reports circulated that he could face arrest in connection with the International Criminal Court’s crimes...

North Korea welcomed foreign visitors and firms to a trade fair this week, showcasing home-grown products including the latest model of its sleek Jindallae smartphone.

Diplomatically isolated and under biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programmes, North Korea has an ageing manufacturing base which analysts doubt has the ability to make high-quality consumer technology.

Still, Pyongyang has touted Jindallae – “azalea” in Korean – as a convenient way for citizens to stay connected,...

A pro-Kremlin Japanese politician has said Russia is trying to arrange a meeting of the two nations’ foreign ministers in July, although analysts suggest that Muneo Suzuki’s efforts to act as a go-between are unlikely to bear fruit.

Suzuki, who represents a constituency in Hokkaido and returned to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2025 after 23 years as an independent member of the Diet, met senior Russian government officials in Moscow on Monday.

Andrey Rudenko, deputy foreign minister in...

Global attention is fixated on Japan’s strategic shift under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. From the strengthened US-Japan alliance to the tense stand-off with China, from advocating for constitutional reinterpretation to allowing weapons exports and deploying counterstrike capabilities – these moves have been dissected in capitals worldwide.

But the real, and more decisive, story is unfolding on Japan’s home front. The domestic dynamic driving this change is often a footnote, yet it is the...

The son of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded France’s help in seeking independently verified proof of his mother’s life after she was transferred to house arrest, her lawyers said.

The country’s junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday ordered the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner to be moved, five years after putting her into detention in a coup.

But her son, Kim Aris, says he has still not heard from his mother, who remains massively popular inside...

The US Army on Tuesday shot a Tomahawk missile from its Typhon Mid-Range Capability launcher system in the Philippines during a military exercise, marking the first time it has fired such a weapon since the system’s arrival in the country two years ago, which drew a rebuke from China.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the Typhon system had been flown 13,000km (8,000 miles) from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to Luzon in the Philippines as part of a military exercise called Salaknib and...

With Singapore facing a global energy crisis due to the conflict in the Middle East, the “storm clouds” that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned of at an election rally last year now appear to be an understatement.

Under the scorching midday sun at a lunchtime speech in the heart of the city, Singapore’s leader last April urged voters to re-elect his tested People’s Action Party (PAP), arguing that voting for the opposition would weaken his team’s ability to navigate coming headwinds.

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Japan’s defence minister pledged to deepen military cooperation with the Philippines during a visit Tuesday to Manila, aiming for the “early transfer” of Abukuma-class destroyers to the archipelago nation.

The two countries’ shared grievances over Chinese territorial claims have seen them draw increasingly close in recent years, including the signing of a reciprocal access agreement allowing for the deployment of troops on each other’s territory.

Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s visit came as...