Top Asian News 3:39 a.m. GMT

World defense officials hold talks in Singapore with tensions between China and the US as backdrop

SINGAPORE (AP) — Government leaders, defense officials and diplomats from around the world are gathering in Singapore for Asia’s premier security forum this weekend, at a time of increasing tension and competition for influence between the U.S. and China in the Indo-Pacific region. Beijing in recent years has been rapidly expanding its navy and is becoming growingly assertive in pressing its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, which has led to an increasing number of direct conflicts with other countries in the region, most notably the Philippines and Vietnam. The U.S., meantime, has been ramping up military exercises in the region with its allies to underscore its “free and open Indo-Pacific” concept, meant to emphasize freedom of navigation through the contested waters, including the Taiwan Strait.

North Korea says Kim supervised drills simulating preemptive attacks on South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised firing drills involving nuclear-capable, multiple rocket launchers to show the country’s ability to carry out preemptive attacks on rival South Korea, state media reported Friday. The exercises appeared to be the ballistic missile test-launches that South Korea detected from near North Korea’s capital on Thursday. Experts say North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and short-range ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported the latest weapons tests are meant to demonstrate North Korea’s resolve not to hesitate to launch a preemptive strike on South Korea, if threatened.

Stuck at sea for years, a sailor’s plight highlights a surge in shipowner abandonment

Abdul Nasser Saleh says he rarely got a good night’s sleep during the near-decade he spent working without pay on a cargo ship abandoned by its owner at ports along the Red Sea. By night, he tossed and turned in his bunk on the aging Al-Maha, he said, thinking of the unpaid wages he feared he’d never get if he left the ship. By day he paced the deck, stuck for the last two years in the seaport of Jeddah, unable to set foot on land because of Saudi Arabia’s strict immigration laws. Leaving at last felt like returning to his “center of gravity,” he said.

AP Week in Pictures: Asia

May 24-30, 2024 A Japanese town that erected a huge black mesh net last week to stop tourists from snapping photos of Mount Fuji discovered holes in the screen. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang for the first trilateral meeting in four years. Lopburi, in central Thailand, began efforts to control its monkey population, luring them into cages with fresh fruit, before finding them new homes. This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images in the Asia-Pacific region made or published by the Associated Press in the past week.

North Korea’s trash rains onto South Korea, balloon by balloon. Here’s what it means

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Manure. Cigarette butts. Scraps of cloth. Waste batteries. Even, reportedly, diapers. This week, North Korea floated hundreds of huge balloons to dump all of that trash across rival South Korea — an old-fashioned, Cold War-style provocation that the country has rarely used in recent years. The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed Wednesday that North Korea sent the balloons and attached trash sacks. She said they were deployed to make good on her country’s recent threat to “scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth” in South Korea in response to the leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists.

Foreign governments and activists criticize Hong Kong security law verdicts. China defends them

HONG KONG (AP) — The conviction of 14 pro-democracy activists Thursday in Hong Kong drew condemnation from human rights groups and expressions of concern from foreign governments. China, which authored the 2020 national security law used to prosecute the activists, backed Hong Kong authorities. The former British colony is part of China but has its own governing and judicial system. In all, 47 people were charged in what was the largest case brought since the promulgation of the national security law. Of those, 31 had earlier pleaded guilty and two others were acquitted on Thursday. Rep. Chris Smith and Sen. Jeff Merkley, who lead a U.S.

14 pro-democracy activists convicted, 2 acquitted in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case

HONG KONG (AP) — Fourteen pro-democracy activists were convicted in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case on Thursday by a court that said their plan to effect change through an unofficial primary election would have undermined the government’s authority and created a constitutional crisis. After a 2019 protest movement that filled the city’s streets with demonstrators, authorities have all but silenced dissent in Hong Kong through reduced public choice in elections, crackdowns on media and the Beijing-imposed security law under which the activists were convicted. Those found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion included former lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong and Raymond Chan, and they could face up to life in prison when sentenced later.

How a primary election led to activist convictions in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case

HONG KONG (AP) — Verdicts were handed down Thursday in Hong Kong’s largest national security case to date, involving some of the city’s best-known pro-democracy activists and coming more than three years after the defendants’ arrests. In 2021, 47 pro-democracy activists were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under the sweeping, Beijing-imposed national security law for their involvement in an unofficial primary election. The mass prosecution crushed the city’s once-thriving political activism and dimmed hopes of a more democratic Hong Kong. Fourteen of the 47 defendants were convicted Thursday and two others were acquitted. The convicted face up to life in prison.

Global aid group asks warring forces to respect its neutrality with 24 of its aid workers killed

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies asked state forces and combatants Thursday to respect its neutrality and work of delivering humanitarian help to the most destitute in war and other high-risk zones, saying 24 of its aid workers had been killed so far this year mostly in the Gaza Strip. IFRC President Kate Forbes, who is visiting the Philippines, said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that two of her group’s aid workers, Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, were killed Wednesday in the latest incident when their ambulance was hit west of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Pakistan’s former prime minister Khan tells court that recently held vote was stolen from his party

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan addressed court officials Thursday and said that parliamentary elections held earlier this year were stolen from his party, which he claimed is being victimized. There was no immediate comment from the government about Khan’s allegation. Before his arrest, Khan had accused the Election Commission of Pakistan of converting the success of his party into a defeat. The commission has repeatedly denied allegations of fraud in the Feb. 8 elections. “It was the biggest robbery that was committed on the public mandate,” Khan said in remarks to the Supreme Court via video link.