Top Asian News 4:09 a.m. GMT

North Korea stresses alignment with Russia against US and says Putin could visit at an ‘early date’

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday it has agreed to further strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to establish a “new multi-polarized international order,” as the two countries work to build a united front in the face of their separate, intensifying tensions with the United States. In describing North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last week, the North’s Foreign Ministry said Putin also reaffirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang and said that could come at an “early date.” North Korea has been actively strengthening its ties with Russia, highlighted by leader Kim Jong Un’s September visit to Russia for a summit with Putin.

Air pollution and politics pose cross-border challenges in South Asia

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — The air smells burnt in Lahore, a city in Pakistan’s east that used to be famous for its gardens but has become infamous for its terrible air quality. Toxic smog has sickened tens of thousands of people in recent months. Flights have been canceled. Artificial rain was deployed last December to battle smog, a national first. Nothing seems to be working. Lahore is in an airshed, an area where pollutants from industry, transportation and other human activities get trapped because of local weather and topography so they cannot disperse easily. Airsheds also contribute to cross-border pollution. Under certain wind conditions, 30% of pollution in the Indian capital New Delhi can come from Pakistan’s Punjab province, where Lahore is the capital.

Japan becomes the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon

TOKYO (AP) — Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when one of its spacecrafts without astronauts successfully made a soft landing on the lunar surface early Saturday. However, space officials said they needed more time to analyze whether the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, achieved its mission priority of making a pinpoint landing. They also said the craft’s solar panel had failed to generate power, which could shorten its activity on the moon. Space officials believe that the SLIM’s small rovers were launched as planned and that data was being transmitted back to Earth, said Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, a unit of Japan’s space agency.

Japan joins an elite club by landing on the moon. What are others doing?

TOKYO (AP) — Japan landed a spacecraft on the moon Saturday, an attempt at the world’s first “pinpoint lunar landing.” The milestone puts Japan in a club previously occupied by only the United States, the Soviet Union, India and China. A raft of countries and companies are also plotting moon missions. Success means international scientific and diplomatic accolades and potential domestic political gains. Failure means a very expensive, and public, embarrassment. Here’s a look at high-profile recent and upcoming attempts, and what they might mean. ___ NASA plans to send astronauts to fly around the moon next year, and to land there in 2026.

13 students reported killed in an elementary school dorm fire in China’s Henan province

BANGKOK (AP) — A fire broke out in dorms at a boarding school for elementary students in central Henan province, and 13 students died in the blaze, Chinese state media reported Saturday. All of the dead were third grade students, a teacher told Zonglan news, a state-backed media outlet from Hebei province. One person rescued from the scene was being treated in the hospital, CCTV, China’s state broadcaster said. Police set up a cordon around the school, a Xinhua news report showed, and the dorm where the fire had happened was charred black even on the outside of the building. The school had metal grilles covering the windows, as is common in buildings in China.

Pakistan seeks to de-escalate crisis with Iran after deadly airstrikes that spiked tensions

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s political and military leaders on Friday moved to de-escalate tensions with Iran after this week’s deadly airstrikes by Tehran and Islamabad that killed at least 11 people and marked a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors. The decision was apparently reached at a meeting of Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar on his return home after cutting short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Pakistan’s powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir attended the meeting. A statement after the meeting said the leadership discussed the situation following the Iranian airstrikes and praised the “professional, calibrated and proportionate response” by Pakistan’s military.

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.

Sri Lanka has arrested tens of thousands in drug raids criticized by UN human rights body

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in a monthlong crackdown on drugs, and vowed to continue despite U.N. criticism of possible human rights violations during the “heavy-handed” operation. Since the operation began in December, heavily armed police and military personnel with sniffer dogs have made regular nighttimes raids on homes and search buses, seizing narcotics and arresting suspects who include drug users, local dealers and distributors, and people with records of drug-related arrests. Acting police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon told The Associated Press on Thursday that more than 40,000 people have arrested and questioned during operations conducted jointly by the police and security forces, and 5,000 were ordered detained by the courts.

Japan’s imperial family hosts a poetry reading with a focus on peace to welcome the new year

TOKYO (AP) — A mother’s love and a yearning for peace flowed from Japanese Empress Masako’s poem, read Friday at an annual celebration of poetry at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The poem sings of how Masako was touched by what her daughter, Princess Aiko, wrote after her school trip to the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima, which was devastated by an atomic bomb in the closing days of World War II. Starting the new year with poetry is part of Japanese culture. The gathering at the palace is believed to have begun in the 13th century, according to the Imperial Household Agency.

Crisis-ridden Sri Lanka’s economic reforms are yielding results, but challenges remain, IMF says

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Debt-stricken Sri Lanka’s economic reform program is yielding the first signs of recovery, but the improvements still need to translate into improved living conditions for its people, the International Monetary Fund said Friday. Sri Lanka has been struggling with an economic crisis since declaring bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half of it to foreign creditors. The crisis caused severe shortages of food, fuel and other necessities. Strident public protests led to the ouster of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The IMF agreed last March to a $2.9 billion bailout package, and released the first payment shortly thereafter and the second tranche last month.