Top Asian News 3:58 a.m. GMT

North Korea blows up parts of inter-Korean roads as tensions with South Korea soar

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said North Korea blew up the northern parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use on Tuesday, as the rivals are locked in rising animosities over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital, Pyongyang. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement that North Korea blew up parts of the roads on Tuesday. It said South Korea’s military is bolstering its readiness and surveillance posture but gave no further details. The explosions came a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a meeting with his top military and security officials.

Canada expels India’s top diplomat and alleges wider diplomatic involvement in crimes

TORONTO (AP) — Canada said it has identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist there and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday, in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing and allegations of other crimes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was expelling the Indian high commissioner and the others — all persons of interest, as Canada’s foreign minister said police had uncovered evidence of a worsening campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government. “We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said.

Who am I? A South Korean adoptee finds answers about the past — just not the ones she wants

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Rebecca Kimmel sat in a small room, stunned and speechless, staring at the baby photo she had just unearthed from her adoption file. It was a black-and-white shot of an infant, possibly taken at an orphanage in Gwangju, the South Korean city where Kimmel had heard all her life that she’d been abandoned. But something about the photo — the eyes, the ears, an uneasy feeling deep in her gut — confirmed what she’d long suspected: This baby was not her. Overcome, she started howling like a strange, wounded animal. This photo meant that the stories she had been told about herself were a lie.

Rebecca Kimmel’s search for her roots had an unlikely ending: Tips for other Korean adoptees

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Rebecca Kimmel sat in a small room, stunned and speechless, staring at the baby photo she had just unearthed from her adoption file. Something about the photo — the eyes, the ears, an uneasy feeling deep in her gut — confirmed what the Korean adoptee had long suspected: This baby was not her. And the stories she’d been told about herself were a lie. But then who was she? Who IS she? Thousands of South Korean adoptees are looking to satisfy a raw, compelling urge that much of the world takes for granted: the search for identity.

Campaigning begins for Japan’s parliamentary election

TOKYO (AP) — Official campaigning for Japan’s Oct. 27 parliamentary election began Tuesday with new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seeking a mandate for his policies and for reforms after the governing party’s political funds scandal. More than 1,300 candidates were expected to enter the races for the 465-seat Lower House before registration closes later Tuesday. Ishiba called the snap election after he took office as prime minister on Oct. 1. As customary for Liberal Democratic Party leaders over the past decade, he was to start his campaign in Fukushima to renew his pledge to support the area’s recovery from the 2011 nuclear disaster.

China deploys record 125 warplanes in large-scale military drill in warning to Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday, simulating the sealing off of key ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, officials said. China made clear it was to punish Taiwan’s president for rejecting Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the self-governed island. The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.” “This is a resolute punishment for Lai Ching-te’s continuous fabrication of ’Taiwan independence’ nonsense,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.

China’s premier inaugurates a Beijing-funded airport at the start of a Pakistan trip

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China’s Premier Li Qiang on Monday inaugurated a Beijing-funded airport built in restive southwestern Pakistan a week after militants killed two Chinese workers, as he arrived for a regional security meeting in Islamabad. Li will be the most prominent leader at the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization starting Tuesday to discuss how to boost security and economic ties between the member states. It was founded by Russia and China to counter Western alliances. Hours after arriving in Islamabad, Li and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a televised ceremony virtually inaugurated a Chinese-funded international airport in Gwadar, in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Pakistan hosts a major security meeting this week as it struggles against rising insurgent violence

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan is hosting a major security meeting this week, with senior leaders from longtime ally China and archrival India among those attending. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia and the wider region. But it’s Pakistan’s own security that is under the microscope. An attack on a foreign ambassadors’ convoy, violent protests by supporters of an imprisoned former prime minister, and a bombing outside Pakistan’s biggest airport are signs the country is struggling to contain multiplying threats from insurgents. The meeting, which begins Tuesday in Islamabad, comes at a crucial time for the government.

A record-setting teen climber returns home to Nepal to a hero’s welcome

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Sherpa teenager who became the youngest person to scale all the world’s 14 highest peaks returned home to Nepal on Monday to a hero’s welcome. Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18, reached the 8,027-meter (26,335-foot) summit of Mount Shishapangma in China last week, completing his mission to climb the world’s peaks that are more than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) high. He broke a previous record by another Sherpa, who was 30 years old at the time. Nepal’s Tourism Minister Badri Prasad Pandey, along with members of the climbing community, fellow Sherpas and supporters, lined up outside Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to offer flowers and scarfs to Nima Rinji.

Pakistani police fire tear gas and charge protesters in Karachi

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police fired tear gas and swung batons at thousands of protesters on Sunday in Karachi after the demonstrators tried to break through a security barricade. Around 2,000 supporters of a far-right Islamist party tried to reach the city’s press club to oppose a another demonstration staged by civil society groups about the killing of a blasphemy suspect while he was in custody. Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party hurled rocks at officers and torched a patrol car when police stopped them from reaching the press club. The party said one of its members died in the violence.