Top Asian News 2:40 a.m. GMT

Did this happen to me also? Korean adoptees question their past and ask how to find their families

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Dozens of South Korean adoptees, many in tears, have responded to an investigation led by The Associated Press and documented by Frontline (PBS) last week on Korean adoptions. The investigation reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea’s foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies. Here are some of the problems adoptees who responded say they faced, along with tips for finding histories and birth families. Kyla Postrel’s paperwork tells two different stories, neither of which she’s sure is true. After a DNA test last year, Postrel found a half-brother who was also adopted to the West.

South Korea adoptees endure emotional, sometimes devastating searches for their birth families

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — They began a pilgrimage that thousands before them have done. They boarded long flights to their motherland, South Korea, to undertake an emotional, often frustrating, sometimes devastating search for their birth families. These adoptees are among the 200,000 sent from South Korea to Western nations as children. Many have grown up, searched for their origin story and discovered that their adoption paperwork was inaccurate or fabricated. They have only breadcrumbs to go on: grainy baby photos, names of orphanages and adoption agencies, the towns where they were said to have been abandoned. They don’t speak the language.

North Korea’s Kim threatens to destroy South Korea with nuclear strikes if provoked

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media reported Friday, after the South’s leader warned that Kim’s regime would collapse if he attempted to use nuclear arms. The exchange of such rhetoric between the rival Koreas is nothing new, but the latest comments come during heightened animosities over the North’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continuation of missile tests. Next week, observers say North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament is expected to constitutionally declare a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to formally reject reconciliation with South Korea and codify new national borders.

Typhoon Krathon makes landfall in Taiwan, packing fierce winds and torrential rain

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Krathon made landfall Thursday in Taiwan’s major port city of Kaohsiung, bringing torrential rains and fierce winds to the island’s south. Trees were brought down by high winds and roads were flooded, prompting the closure of schools and businesses. Krathon made landfall in the industrial Siaogang district of Kaohsiung around 12:40 p.m., the Central Weather Administration said. It packed maximum sustained winds of 126 kph (78 mph) with gusts of 162 kph (101 mph). The typhoon was forecast to move slowly north and weaken into a tropical depression by Friday before it reaches the capital, Taipei.

In South Korea, deepfake porn wrecks women’s lives and deepens gender conflict

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Three years after the 30-year-old South Korean woman received a barrage of online fake images that depicted her nude, she is still being treated for trauma. She struggles to talk with men. Using a mobile phone brings back the nightmare. “It completely trampled me, even though it wasn’t a direct physical attack on my body,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. She didn’t want her name revealed because of privacy concerns. Many other South Korean women recently have come forward to share similar stories as South Korea grapples with a deluge of non-consensual, explicit deepfake videos and images that have become much more accessible and easier to create.

Memories and prayers are shared at a small-town funeral for the victims of horrific Thai bus fire

LAN SAK, Thailand (AP) — At a Buddhist temple in central Thailand, Wichan Seubsaichan recalled his 9-year-old son as a well-mannered boy who loved school and sports, and enjoyed participating in many activities since he was a toddler. The boy, Reutthawat, had been asking him for a new pair of soccer shoes. On Thursday, Wichan laid a brand-new pair of shoes, a soccer ball, and colorful sporting t-shirts along with a tray of food and beverages on top of a silver and blue patterned coffin, in front of which stood a portrait of a beaming wide-eyed boy in a white tunic with a purple brocade sash running across his chest.

Dunedin, New Zealand, records its wettest day in a century as flooding cuts the city off by road

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The New Zealand city of Dunedin was cut off by road due to flooding Friday after recording its wettest day in more than a century. Local authorities in the South Island city said more than 80 people who lived in low-lying areas spent the night in emergency shelters after the rain began Thursday. There have been no deaths and no one is unaccounted for. But the city of 135,000 people was effectively cut off when the main highways leading into and out of Dunedin were closed due to flooding. They were expected to remain closed until Saturday, the City Council said on its website.

Former Singapore minister sentenced to a year in prison for receiving illegal gifts

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A former Singaporean Cabinet minister was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of receiving illegal gifts, in a rare criminal case involving a minister in the Asian financial hub. Former Transport Minister S. Iswaran had pleaded guilty last week to one count of obstructing justice and four of accepting gifts from people with whom he had official business. He was the first minister to be charged and imprisoned in nearly half a century. Justice Vincent Hoong, in his ruling, said holders of high office “must be expected to avoid any perception that they are susceptible to influence by pecuniary benefits.” “I am of the view that it is appropriate to impose a sentence in excess of both parties’ positions,” Hoong said as he handed down a total of 12 months imprisonment for the five charges.

Vietnam condemns China for assault on its fishermen in the disputed South China Sea

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam condemned China on Thursday while saying that Chinese law enforcement personnel assaulted 10 Vietnamese fishermen, damaged their fishing gear and seized about 4 tons of fish catch near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. The fishermen first reported the assault near the Chinese-controlled islands by radio on Sunday but did not identify the attackers. Three of the fishermen suffered broken limbs and the rest sustained other injuries, according to Vietnamese state media. Some were taken on stretchers to a hospital after they returned to Quang Ngai province late Monday. Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed Chinese law enforcement personnel on Thursday for the high-seas attack, saying it had “seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty in the Paracel Islands,” international law and an agreement by the leaders of the rival claimant countries to better manage their territorial disputes.

Cambodian maid is arrested and deported by Malaysia for criticizing Cambodia leaders on social media

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian woman who worked as a maid in Malaysia has been deported to her homeland for comments she posted on social media criticizing Cambodian government leaders, in the latest example of a Southeast Asian government helping another arrest a dissident. A Cambodia prison official and an opposition activist group said Thursday that Nuon Toeun, 36, who had worked in Malaysia for several years, was arrested last week by Malaysian authorities following a request from the Cambodian government. Human rights groups have criticized several Southeast Asian governments for helping each other harass, detain and deport political dissidents in exile.