Asia - South China Morning Post

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has bluntly said that Seoul cannot prevent the United States from redeploying military assets from the peninsula, raising concerns about the shifting role of American forces stationed in the country.

Analysts say the episode exposes a stark reality for Seoul: US Forces Korea (USFK) are increasingly being used for missions beyond deterring North Korea as Washington pushes for greater “strategic flexibility” for its troops overseas.

Lee made the remarks after...

The Philippines was hit by a sharp fuel-price shock on Tuesday, with pump costs surging after the escalating conflict involving Iran pushed global oil prices higher, in what could become one of the country’s steepest weekly increases in years.

Consumer groups say the surge is exposing a deeper problem: a deregulated oil industry introduced in the late 1990s that allows companies to set pump prices in line with global markets, leaving the government with fewer tools to intervene than many of its...

Indian police have arrested two suspects in the killing of a prominent Bangladeshi student leader, a development analysts say could help ease strained ties between the neighbouring countries.

The detention of the two men over the death of Sharif Osman Hadi – whose killing last year triggered anti-India protests in Bangladesh – may provide an early test of cooperation between New Delhi and Dhaka following Bangladesh’s recent political transition.

Hadi was shot in the head last December during an...

Not far from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, former plant worker Toru Akama tends to dozens of pets abandoned after the catastrophe 15 years ago, work he sees as part of his quest for redemption.

Miaows and barks break the silence of the countryside, once an evacuation zone, as the 63-year-old brings food to the animals left behind when their owners fled the triple disaster of March 11, 2011: earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.

“It’s because of this plant, where we worked for years,...

Indonesia’s involvement in US leader Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” is drawing growing criticism at home as the war in the Middle East intensifies scrutiny of President Prabowo Subianto’s closer engagement with Washington.

Critics have urged Jakarta to withdraw from the board and reconsider related policies, including plans to send troops to Gaza and a recent trade arrangement with the United States, while Prabowo has defended his stance as being consistent with the country’s non-aligned...

The oil price spike caused by the war in the Middle East has sparked unrest in Bangladesh and exasperation at petrol pumps around Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports.

Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, queues have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.

In Bangladesh – which imports 95 per cent of its oil and gas needs – the military has...

Former Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s corruption trial opened in Kuala Lumpur on Monday with a courtroom fight over the admissibility of TikTok videos, which prosecutors hope will link millions of ringgit in illicit funds to his Bersatu party.

Among the most keenly observed cases involving Malaysia’s political elite in years, the proceedings come three years after Muhyiddin was first charged in connection with projects under his administration’s Covid-19 recovery efforts.

Malaysian...

A Bangladeshi man who spent over three years on bail in Malaysia fighting local child pornography charges has been spirited to Alaska by the FBI to face what prosecutors describe as one of the most prolific child exploitation cases in US history.

Zobaidul Amin, 28, was brought from Malaysia to the United States last Wednesday and made his initial appearance in a federal court in Anchorage the following day, where he pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts, according to the US Department of Justice...

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un criticised the United States and South Korea for proceeding with their annual joint military exercises at a perilous moment for global security and warned that any challenge to the North’s safety would bring “terrible consequences”.

Kim Yo-jong’s statement Tuesday came a day after the allies started their 11-day Freedom Shield exercise involving thousands of troops, while Washington also wages an escalating war in the Middle East.

Without...

China condemned it. Russia condemned it. Brazil condemned it. Brics, as a bloc, has said nothing.

More than a week after US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered the worst regional crisis in years, the grouping that positions itself as the collective voice of the Global South has yet to issue a single joint statement.

The silence is not an oversight. It is the sound of a bloc whose expansion has outpaced its ability to speak as one, analysts...