Top Asian News 4:51 a.m. GMT

South Korean and US troops will begin major exercises next week in response to North Korean threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and U.S. troops will begin their expanded annual military drills next week in response to North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats, the two countries said Wednesday, a move that will likely enrage North Korea because it views its rivals’ joint training as an invasion rehearsal. In recent months, North Korea has inflamed animosities on the Korean Peninsula with fiery rhetoric and continued missile tests. While it’s unlikely for North Korea to launch full-blown attacks against South Korea and the U.S., observers say the North could still stage limited provocations along the tense border with South Korea.

China’s embattled former foreign minister steps down as member of the legislature

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, who has been missing from public view since last June, has resigned from the national legislature, state media reported Tuesday. Qin was dismissed as foreign minister in July, in one of China’s biggest political surprises in years. The 57-year-old served for only seven months before he disappeared from public view last June. The government announced a month later that he had been dismissed from his post. He has yet to reappear publicly. Qin was replaced as foreign minister by his predecessor, Wang Yi. According to a notice by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress accepted Qin’s resignation as a delegate to the upcoming annual parliamentary session.

Japan had the fewest babies it has ever recorded last year. Marriages dropped steeply, too

TOKYO (AP) — The number of babies born in Japan last year fell for an eighth straight year to a new low, government data showed Tuesday, and a top official said it was critical for the country to reverse the trend in the coming half-dozen years. The 758,631 babies born in Japan in 2023 were a 5.1% decline from the previous year, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. It was the lowest number of births since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899. The number of marriages fell by 5.9% to 489,281 couples, falling below a half-million for the first time in 90 years — one of the key reasons for the declining births.

A former Thai police chief will face charges for allegedly helping a Red Bull scion avoid justice

BANGKOK (AP) — Prosecutors in Thailand announced Tuesday they will indict a former national police chief on charges of impeding legal action against an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune who was accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a 2012 hit-and-run. Several government officials and police officers have been accused of a conspiracy to help Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya escape justice by fleeing abroad in a case widely held up as an example of how the rich and well-connected enjoy impunity in Thailand. Vorayuth is the grandson of Chaleo Yoovidhya, one of the creators of the globally famous Red Bull brand.

King Harald V of Norway has been hospitalized with an infection while on vacation in Malaysia

STOCKHOLM (AP) — King Harald V of Norway has been hospitalized with an infection while on vacation in Malaysia, the Norwegian royal house said in a statement Tuesday. The 87-year-old monarch has had several illnesses in recent months, raising concern about the head of state’s health. But royal officials have told Norwegian media that Crown Prince Haakon will be carrying out his planned engagements at home. Harald, who is on a private trip abroad, is the oldest monarch in Europe. Two days before his birthday last week, the palace announced that the king would be undertaking a private trip abroad, without specifying the destination or dates, according to the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Why thousands of junior doctors in South Korea are striking, and what it means for patients

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of junior doctors in South Korea have been refusing to see patients and attend surgeries since they walked off the job Feb. 20 in response to the government’s push to recruit more medical students. As of Tuesday, about 8,940 medical interns and residents have left their worksites in protest, disrupting the operations of major hospitals in South Korea and threatening to burden the country’s overall medical service. Now, authorities warned that they have until Thursday to return to work or face license suspensions and prosecutions. Here’s what’s happening with the strikes: The government plans to raise South Korea’s yearly medical school admission caps by 2,000, from the current 3,058.

Australian police find bodies of couple after officer who was an ex-boyfriend admits to killing them

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian police on Tuesday found the bodies of a couple shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend, who happened to be a police officer, hours after he admitted to killing and hiding them under rocks and debris on a rural property. The remains of former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, were found in the same surfboard bags that police allege the killer used to carry the bodies from Baird’s Sydney home last week, New South Wales Police Force Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said. The bodies were found at a property near Bungonia, a town 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Sydney, only 20 minutes drive from another property where police divers had spent days scouring waterways.

Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan and his wife plead not guilty in another corruption case

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a graft case alleging they accepted a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for large sums of laundered money, officials said. The case is the second to indict Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, over acts of corruption allegedly committed while the former cricket star turned Islamist politician was in office. Prosecutors accuse the couple of using their family’s charity to set up a university on land gifted to them by tycoon Malik Riaz. In return, the businessman was allegedly given 190 million British pounds ($240 million) in laundered money that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities.

A senior police officer and 2 wanted Pakistani Taliban members were killed in a shootout, police say

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A senior police officer and two wanted Pakistani Taliban members died in an intense shootout set off when police raided a militant hideout early Tuesday in the country’s northwest, a local police official said. Two other police officers were wounded in the shootout early Tuesday in Mardan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The local official, Hidayat Ullah, identified the slain police superintendent as Ijaz Khan, who led the raid. The two Taliban members who were killed were being sought by police over their alleged connection to more than 20 past attacks on security forces and a monetary reward had been offered for any information leading to their arrest.

Most UN Security Council members demand Taliban rescind decrees seriously oppressing women and girls

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than two-thirds of the U.N. Security Council’s members demanded Monday that the Taliban rescind all policies and decrees oppressing and discriminating against women and girls, including banning girls education above the sixth grade and women’s right to work and move freely. A statement by 11 of the 15 council members condemned the Taliban’s repression of women and girls since they took power in August 2021, and again insisted on their equal participation in public, political, economic, cultural and social life -- especially at all decision-making levels seeking to advance international engagement with Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.