Asia - South China Morning Post

Having invested significant diplomatic capital into ties with Russia in recent years, North Korea now seems to be pivoting back to China. Leader Kim Jong-un said his country places “the greatest value” on improving ties with Beijing.

This shift came during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s two-day visit to North Korea last week, where he met Kim and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

Notably, Wang’s visit marked his first to North Korea since 2019. In the intervening years of the...

North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its abilities to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, as it steps up activity at a key complex, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said.

Enriching uranium can provide an alternative, and experts say, a more effective, path to acquiring weapons-grade material in addition to ‌reprocessing spent plutonium extracted from a nuclear reactor.

Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, the head of the International...

Balikatan, the flagship annual military exercise between Manila and Washington, begins in the Philippines this month without a single neighbouring Southeast Asian member taking part, despite the drills’ growing scale and multinational reach.

Analysts say that hesitation helps explain Balikatan’s place in the region: for some Asean members, it is a reassuring sign of US commitment, but joining it risks looking like a strategic choice in the sharpening rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

“To...

In Malaysia, artificial intelligence is already causing harm to content creators through deepfake nudes, cloned voices, scam advertisements and stolen likenesses, experts have warned.

They shared the view at the Freedom Film Network’s second International Conference on Film & Society in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, where creators, researchers and advocates from across Southeast Asia gathered under the theme “Cultivating Artistic Freedom in a Volatile World”.

Melissa Lim Shi Hui, a lawyer and legal...

President Prabowo Subianto’s heavy overseas travel schedule is drawing scrutiny at home as Indonesians are asked to curb fuel use and officials have had to cut back on foreign trips.

The attention reflects a growing debate over the value and timing of the president’s diplomacy as higher global oil prices put fresh pressure on Indonesia’s fuel subsidy bill – even as Prabowo defended some of his recent travel as being aimed at securing energy supplies and economic opportunities for his...

Japan has said it will establish a financial framework worth about US$10 billion to help Asian countries procure energy resources and bolster their stockpiles ‌as Middle East tensions drive prices higher and disrupt supply chains.

The support, aimed at preventing knock-on effects on Japan’s own supply chains, would be channelled mainly through state-backed financial institutions such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.

Announcing the plan on...

As Islamabad prepares to host a second round of negotiations between the United States and Iran, Pakistani mediators are seeking ways to extricate the Gulf monarchies from the conflict, according to a well-placed diplomatic source.

While the success of those efforts depends largely on the outcome of talks that US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday could resume by the end of the week, Pakistan’s mediation has produced a second confidence-building phone call in a week between the Iranian and...

In a rare public protest in Singapore, hundreds gathered in Hong Lim Park over the weekend to denounce the “US war machine”. They brandished placards and banners, including one with horns drawn on US presidents past and present captioned: “This is what terrorists look like.”

The demonstration, which required organisers to get permission from the authorities, came as public sentiment across the region sours against Washington. Observers attribute this to the perception that the United States has...

A breakthrough in India’s nuclear power research has been hailed as a defining moment for the country’s energy programme and a step towards self-reliance.

Earlier this month, Indian scientists revealed they had achieved criticality, a state of self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, at the Kalpakkam prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) in Tamil Nadu state.

The programme promises to harness India’s abundant thorium reserves, which constitute around 25 per cent of global deposits, advancing its...

A man raped a domestic worker in an open field in Singapore’s Rochor and stole money from her shortly after witnessing another man allegedly sexually assault the woman.

Malaysian Harvin Velanggany, 24, was sentenced on Monday to eight years’ jail and six strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to one count of rape with a charge of theft taken into consideration.

Court documents stated that the victim, a 32-year-old Filipino, was on her day off when she was sexually assaulted on May 26, 2024....