Top Asian News 3:38 a.m. GMT

North Korea says Kim Jong Un supervised tests of rocket launchers targeting Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire drill of nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital as he vowed to boost his war deterrent in the face of deepening confrontations with rivals, state media said Tuesday. The report came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected North Korea firing multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast, adding to a streak of weapons displays that have raised regional tensions. Experts say North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery.

India’s multi-phase election will stretch over 44 days. Here’s why it takes so long

NEW DELHI (AP) — From April 19 to June 1, nearly 970 million Indians — or over 10% of the global population — are eligible to vote in general elections. The mammoth exercise is the biggest anywhere in the world and will take 44 days before results are announced on June 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third successive term. He will face off against a broad but flailing alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to challenge his appeal. Most surveys predict Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party will win comfortably, cementing him as one of the country’s most popular and consequential leaders.

South Korea will suspend licenses of 2 senior doctors in first punishment for doctors’ walkouts

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean authorities will suspend the licenses of two senior doctors for allegedly inciting the weekslong walkouts by thousands of medical interns and residents that have disrupted hospital operations, one of the doctors said Monday. The impending suspensions are the punishments against physicians after more than 90% of the country’s 13,000 doctors-in-training walked off the job last month to protest the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions. Officials say the recruitment plan is aimed at adding more doctors to prepare for South Korea’s rapidly aging population in a country whose doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world.

Blinken tells democracy summit that technology must sustain democratic values

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the need to make sure that technologies sustain democratic values, telling a democracy summit on Monday that authoritarian regimes deploy them to undermine democracy and human rights. Blinken spoke at the ministerial conference of the third Summit for Democracy, a U.S.-led initiative held in Seoul, South Korea, this year. “Revitalizing democracy will also require us to shape the technological future, that’s inclusive, that’s rights respecting, directed at driving progress in people’s lives,” Blinken said. “As authoritarian and repressive regimes deploy technologies to undermine democracy and human rights, we need to ensure that technology sustains and supports democratic values and norms,” he said.

Google, Meta and others face tough questions in Australia over cyber extremism threats

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s online safety regulator has put social media giants on notice, requiring them to explain what they are doing to to protect people from violent extremists and terrorists. The country’s eSafety regulator announced Tuesday that it had issued legal notices to Google, Meta, X, WhatsApp, Telegram and Reddit requiring each company to report on steps they are taking to protect Australian users of their platforms from extremist material online. Accessing violent and extremist content on social media has been blamed for the radicalization of the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch mosques shootings, which killed 51 people, and also a gunman who murdered 10 black Americans at Buffalo in New York in 2022.

Detention of 3 teens over gruesome killing of 13-year-old classmate sparks debate in China

BEIJING (AP) — In the last recorded moments before the 13-year-old boy’s death, surveillance cameras showed him sitting on a scooter, surrounded by three classmates. An hour later, his phone went dead, kicking off a frantic search by relatives. The following day, police in a village in central China made a sickening discovery: the boy’s body, buried underneath a tarp in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse. His three teenage classmates have been detained on suspicion of murdering the boy in a case that has riveted China, setting off outrage and frenzied debate over the young age of the suspects and soul-searching about bullying and social responsibility in the Chinese countryside.

Biden to host Japan PM Kishida, Philippines President Marcos for White House summit

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a White House summit next month amid growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, provocative Chinese action in the South China Sea and differences over a Japanese company’s plan to buy an iconic American steel company. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement on Monday said the first-ever U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit is an opportunity to highlight the countries’ “growing economic relations, a proud and resolute commitment to shared democratic values and a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

US and Japan seek UN resolution calling on all nations to ban nuclear weapons in outer space

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Japan are sponsoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the U.S. ambassador announced Monday. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a U.N. Security Council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous, and unacceptable.” The announcement that the U.S. and Japan had circulated a resolution follows White House confirmation last month that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.

Ohtani and Yamamoto are unbelievable in any language. Japanese has several words for them

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — If you’re a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ billion-dollar duo of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, you might want to learn a couple of Japanese adjectives. Try these as the Dodgers and Padres are in South Korea to open the MLB season. There’s “shinjirarenai,” which translates as “unbelievable” or “incredible.” Or the milder “subarashi,” which can mean “awesome” or “amazing.” Of course, the Japanese mega-stars are about unprecedented spending, flair, and commerical appeal. But there’s more to it. They’ve stirred pride in almost every Japanese, marked 150 years of baseball evolution in the country, and provided an antidote for political ills like the recent announcement that Japan’s economy has slipped to No.

Brisbane Olympics organizers scrap plans for their 2032 centerpiece and reject new stadium idea

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Brisbane Olympics organizers have scrapped plans to demolish and rebuild an iconic cricket ground as the centerpiece of the 2032 Games while also rejecting a review panel’s recommendation for a new stadium in city parklands. Queensland state’s Premier Steven Miles instead announced Monday he’d prefer to upgrade an existing rugby stadium close to downtown Brisbane to host the opening and closing ceremonies. Miles called for an independent review of Olympic planning in January as backlash intensified against the tripling of the cost to redevelop the so-called Gabba stadium. Brisbane’s former mayor Graham Quirk led a 60-day review which handed its findings to the Miles’ state government on Monday, two days after council elections across the state.