Top Asian News 4:38 a.m. GMT

After Taiwan’s election, its new envoy to the US offers assurances to Washington and Beijing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington has a message for both the island’s Chinese adversaries and its American friends: Don’t worry that Taiwan’s new president-elect will worsen relations with Beijing and possibly draw the U.S. into a conflict. President-elect Lai Ching-te plans to keep the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Alexander Tah-Ray Yui told The Associated Press on Thursday in his first interview with an international news organization since he arrived in the U.S. in December. The Chinese government has called Lai a troublemaker who will push Taiwan toward independence. But Yui said Lai is willing to engage with Beijing, even as the island seeks to strengthen its unofficial ties with Washington for stability in the region.

North Korea says it tested underwater nuclear attack drone in response to rivals’ naval drills

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday it had tested a purported underwater nuclear attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise between South Korea and the United States and Japan this week, as it continues to blame its rivals for raising tensions in the region. The alleged drone test came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared he would scrap his country’s long-standing goal of a peaceful unification with South Korea and that his country would rewrite its constitution to define South Korea as its most hostile foreign adversary. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years with Kim accelerating weapons demonstrations and threatening nuclear conflict and the US and its Asian allies responding by strengthening their combined military exercises.

South Korea calls on divided UN council ‘to break the silence’ on North Korea’s tests and threats

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — South Korea called on the divided U.N. Security Council on Thursday “to break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats. “It’s a big question,” South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Hwang Joonkook told reporters after an emergency closed meeting of the council on the North’s first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. South Korea is serving a two-year term on the council. The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Could it escalate? A look at what is behind Iran and Pakistan’s airstrikes

ISLAMABAD (AP) — This week’s airstrikes between Iran and Pakistan that killed at least 11 people mark a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors. Long-running, low-level insurgencies on either side of the border have frustrated both countries, and the apparent targets of the strikes — Iran’s on Tuesday and Pakistan’s response on Thursday — were insurgent groups whose goal is an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The question is why Iran and Pakistan would choose to strike insurgents in each other’s territories rather than their own, considering the risk of a wider conflagration.

Pakistani retaliatory strikes in Iran kill at least 9, raising tensions along border

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan launched airstrikes against alleged militant hideouts inside Iran on Thursday, killing at least nine people as it retaliated for a similar attack days earlier by Iran and raising tensions with its neighbor as conflict across the region escalates. The unprecedented attacks by both Pakistan and Iran on either side of their border appeared to target Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals. The countries accuse each other of providing a haven to the groups in their respective territories. The flare-up between Iran and Pakistan comes as the Middle East remains unsettled by Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and on the heels of Iranian airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria.

At least 7 people dead after a landslide buries a house in the southern Philippines, official says

DAVAO, Philippines (AP) — A landslide set off by days of heavy rain buried a house where people were holding Christian prayers in the southern Philippines, killing at least seven people, including children, and seriously injuring two others, a disaster-response official said. Five to 10 people remained unaccounted following the landslide in a far-flung mountain village in the gold-mining town of Monkayo in Davao de Oro province, Ednar Dayanghirang, regional chief of the government’s Office of Civil Defense, said Thursday night. Rescuers stopped their search for more victims at mid-afternoon Thursday due to heavy rains that could cause more landslides, he said.

A Singapore minister is charged with corruption, accused of taking tickets to F1 races and musicals

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singaporean Transport Minister S. Iswaran was charged Thursday in the first ministerial corruption case ever seen in the Asian financial hub known for squeaky clean government. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a statement that Iswaran, 61, faces 27 charges: two for corruption, 24 for receiving gifts as a public servant, and one for obstructing the course of justice. Iswaran said after leaving court that he had resigned from his post on Tuesday, and denied the charges. He was alleged to have received goods worth nearly SG$385,000 ($286,000) between 2015 and 2022 from Malaysian property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, some in return for helping the Singapore-based businessman advance his business interests.

Remains of fireworks explosion victims taken to Thai temple where families give DNA to identify them

MUEANG SUPHAN BURI, Thailand (AP) — Rescue workers carried out the grim task Thursday of recovering the remains of the 23 apparent victims of a fireworks factory explosion in central Thailand. Only part of the building frame stood at the site of the devastated factory in an otherwise-empty rice field in rural Suphan Buri province the day after the blast. The damage to the site and the condition of the bodies made the number of victims difficult to determine. Families and friends of the victims gathered at a temple where remains were being stored, to report missing loved ones and provide DNA samples to help identify the remains, but uniformed local officials sought to keep reporters from speaking with them.

China, Philippines agree to lower tensions on South China Sea confrontations

BANGKOK (AP) — China and the Philippines said they have agreed to work on lowering tensions after a year of public and tense confrontations in the South China Sea between their ships that have raised concerns of armed engagement in the region. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that the two sides agreed to continue to improve communication and use friendly negotiations to manage their differences at sea, “especially to manage well the situation at Ren’Ai reef.” Ren’Ai reef is the Chinese name for what the Philippines call Ayungin Shoal and the U.S. calls the Second Thomas Shoal, the site of multiple confrontations between the two countries’ ships in recent months.

Japan signs agreement to purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles as US envoy lauds its defense buildup

TOKYO (AP) — Japan signed a deal with the United States on Thursday to purchase up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of its ongoing military buildup in response to increased regional threats. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has pledged to double its annual defense spending to around 10 trillion yen ($68 billion) by 2027, which would make Japan the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China. Defense Minister Minoru Kihara announced in December a decision to accelerate deployment of some Tomahawks and Japanese-made Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles beginning in fiscal year 2025, a year before the original plan.