Top Asian News 4:45 a.m. GMT

The US and South Korea begin large military drills to boost readiness against North’s threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and the United States began large annual military exercises Monday to bolster their readiness against North Korean nuclear threats after the North raised animosities with an extension of missile tests and belligerent rhetoric earlier this year. The South Korean and U.S. forces began a computer-simulated command post training called the Freedom Shield exercise and a variety of field exercises for an 11-day run, the South Korean Defense Ministry said. North Korea had no immediate response to the major annual drills it regards as a rehearsal for invasion. The North has staged provocative weapons tests in the past in reaction to its adversaries’ joint drills.

South Korea takes steps to suspend licenses of striking doctors after they refuse to end walkouts

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government began steps Monday to suspend the medical licenses of thousands of striking junior doctors, days after they missed a government-set deadline to end their joint walkouts, which have severely impacted hospital operations. Nearly 9,000 medical interns and residents have been on strike for two weeks to protest a government push to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions. Their action has led to hundreds of canceled surgeries and other treatments and threatened to burden the country’s medical service. On Monday, officials were sent to dozens of hospitals to formally confirm the absence of the striking doctors as the government began steps to suspend their licenses for at least three months, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told a briefing.

China and Myanmar likely to be high on the agenda when Southeast Asian leaders meet in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An increasingly assertive China and a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar are likely to be high on the agenda when Southeast Asian leaders meet in Australia for a rare summit this week. The ASEAN-Australia Special Summit that starts in Melbourne on Monday marks 50 years since Australia became the first official partner of the Asian bloc. Leaders of nine of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to attend the three-day summit, with Myanmar excluded from political representation over its failure to stem violence in that country since a military junta seized control in 2021. East Timor’s leader has been invited as an official ASEAN observer and Australian Prime Anthony Albanese invited his New Zealand counterpart to Melbourne to meet regional leaders.

Philippine foreign minister urges neighbors to stand together more strongly in South China Sea

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo urged regional neighbors Monday to stand together more strongly in upholding the rule of law in the South China Sea, where China is forcefully pursuing territorial claims in conflict with other nations. Manalo spoke at a forum on maritime cooperation on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian leaders’ summit in the Australian city of Melbourne at which increasingly assertive moves by China is high on the agenda. Manalo referred to the Philippines’ victory over China in a 2016 arbitration ruling in The Hague, Netherlands, that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Shehbaz Sharif returns as Pakistan’s new premier as Imran Khan allies in parliament allege rigging

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Lawmakers in Pakistan’s National Assembly have elected Shehbaz Sharif for a comeback term as the country’s prime minister, as allies of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan in parliament shouted in protest, alleging rigging in last month’s election. Sharif held the same office from April 2022 to August 2023, and is the younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif. Khan is currently serving prison terms in multiple cases and has been barred from seeking or holding office. Sharif replaced him as prime minister after his ouster in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said Sharif secured 201 votes, defeating Omar Ayub of the Sunni Ittehad Council who got 92 votes.

What to watch for as China’s major political meeting of the year gets underway

BEIJING (AP) — One burning issue dominates as the 2024 session of China’s legislature gets underway this week: the economy. The National People’s Congress annual meeting, which opens Tuesday, is being closely watched for any signals on what the ruling Communist Party might do to reenergize an economy that is sagging under the weight of expanded government controls and the bursting of a real-estate bubble. That is not to say that other issues won’t come up. Proposals to raise the retirement age are expected to be a hot topic, the state-owned Global Times newspaper said last week. And China watchers will parse the annual defense budget and the possible introduction of a new foreign minister.

Malaysia may renew the search for MH370 a decade after the flight disappeared

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian officials said Sunday they may renew the hunt for MH370, after a U.S. company that tried to find the plane in 2018 proposed a fresh search in the southern Indian Ocean where the Malaysia Airlines plane is believed to have crashed a decade ago. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said he would invite Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to brief him on its latest “no find, no fee” proposal. The government has long said it would not support another search without new leads on the plane’s location. If the evidence is credible, he said, he will seek Cabinet’s approval to sign a new contract to resume the search.

The former chairman of the state-owned Bank of Beijing is being investigated for alleged corruption

BEIJING (AP) — The former chairman of the state-owned Bank of Beijing is under investigation for corruption, the latest in a series of graft investigations focused on the country’s financial sector. Yan Bingzhu, who led the bank since its establishment in 1996 and until he retired in 2017, is among several top officials being probed for “seriously violating discipline and the law,” according to a notice published on the city of Beijing’s official website on Friday. He is the latest official to be probed for graft as part of President Xi Jinping’s decade-long anti-corruption campaign that critics say has been used partly to remove his political rivals.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is granted bail in a Bangladesh graft case

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A court in Bangladesh on Sunday granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in a $2.3 million embezzlement case. Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, was sentenced to six months in prison in January on a separate charge of violating labor laws. He was granted bail in that case too and has appealed. Prosecutor Mir Ahmmad Ali Salam said the embezzlement case involves a workers welfare fund of Grameen Telecom, which owns 34.2% of the country’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom giant Telenor.

Medical plane carrying Norway’s king lands in Oslo, a day after he received a pacemaker in Malaysia

OSLO, Norway (AP) — An airplane carrying Norway’s King Harald V arrived in Oslo on Sunday, a day after he was implanted with a pacemaker while on holiday in Malaysia. Europe’s oldest reigning monarch was hospitalized for an infection during a private vacation on the northern resort island of Langkawi, the royal house said last Tuesday. He underwent surgery at the Sultanah Maliha Hospital on Saturday to implant a temporary pacemaker due to a low heart rate, according to the royal house. Norwegian media outlets said Harald traveled to Malaysia with his wife, Queen Sonja, to celebrate his 87th birthday. A Scandinavian Airlines medical evacuation plane, which took off from Oslo on Thursday, arrived in Langkawi on Friday.