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Lee Geun-an, the former chief inspector, and his team were responsible for torturing students and workers in South Korea when it was ruled by a military-backed authoritarian government. Photo: YouTube
South Korea

Death of South Korean ‘torture expert’ reopens authoritarian era wounds

Lee Geun-an, who was notorious for using methods such as ‘chicken roasting’ and water torture on victims, did not regret his past.

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North Korea

North Korea and Belarus sign friendship treaty on Lukashenko’s first visit

Japan

Japan’s cherry blossom parties could wilt as inflation strains wallets

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Japan

Man kills woman at Tokyo Pokemon shop before taking his own life

Despite strict gun control laws and rare violent crimes, Japan has seen a number of high-profile knife attacks in recent years.

Rescue workers walk in front of a commercial complex where a female employee at a Pokemon merchandise shop was stabbed to death at Ikebukuro district in Tokyo on Thursday. Photo: via Reuters
Rescue workers walk in front of a commercial complex where a female employee at a Pokemon merchandise shop was stabbed to death at Ikebukuro district in Tokyo on Thursday. Photo: via Reuters
South Korea

‘Anyone from the North?’: US comedian Seth Herzog apologises over BTS joke

Herzog’s remarks sparked backlash from fans ahead of the K-pop band’s American TV comeback.

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South Korea

‘I just order cola’: South Korea’s drying booze culture leaves bars parched

‘Only one in five tables order alcohol. A customer ordering alcohol heavily is like winning a lottery,’ a gastropub owner says.

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Japan

Enact special law to send warships to Hormuz, ex-adviser tells Japan PM

Former national security adviser Nagashima said a prolonged disruption in the critical shipping lane could work in China’s favour.

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Cargo ships and tankers are seen off Fujairah in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern UAE last month. Photo: AFP
Cargo ships and tankers are seen off Fujairah in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern UAE last month. Photo: AFP
Japan

Japan plans to deploy missiles to a faraway island in the Pacific. Here’s why

The deployment is a response to China’s military activity near Minamitorishima, a defence ministry researcher says.

North Korea

Kim welcomes Belarus’ Lukashenko to North Korea with a 21-gun salute

The two countries also signed a ‘friendship and cooperation’ treaty to deepen ties.

South Korea

South Korean ‘sugar cane killer’ extradited from Philippines over drug empire

Accused of running a drug ring from his Philippine prison cell, ‘VIP’ inmate Park Wang-yeol was extradited after a nine-year legal impasse.

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Park Wang-yeol (centre), a South Korean national detained in the Philippines, arrives at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Wednesday. Photo: Yonhap/EPA
South Korea

‘A shame’: why Jin was left off official credits for BTS’ latest album

The K-pop band cited scheduling conflicts, saying the star ‘kept touring’, but fans aren’t buying the explanation.

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BTS member Jin in a scene from the 2026 Netflix documentary BTS: The Return. Photo: AP
BTS member Jin in a scene from the 2026 Netflix documentary BTS: The Return. Photo: AP
Japan

Sacred deer have been a fixture of Japan’s Nara. Now they’re wandering away

More green spaces in nearby cities and the deer’s adaptable nature have led to them straying as far as 40km away from their habitat.

North Korea

How North Korea makes US$500 million yearly – at its own people’s expense

The report details the ‘brutal’ conditions North Korean workers endure in Russia that reveal a pattern of ‘control, coercion and abuse’.

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Japan

Japan to start release of state oil reserve on Thursday to ease Iran impact

Japan sources nearly all crude oil from overseas and relies on the Middle East for over 90 per cent of its crude oil imports.

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An oil refinery in the Keihin Industrial Zone in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo. Photo: Reuters
China-Japan relations

Economic ‘poison’? China has strong words for Japan’s ‘Takaichinomics’ strategy

Communist Party newspaper cautions against tying economic growth to ‘militaristic adventurism’, saying Japan’s citizens would shoulder the costs.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions during a plenary session of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan, in Tokyo on Monday. Photo: AFP
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions during a plenary session of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan, in Tokyo on Monday. Photo: AFP
Japan

Trump’s ‘wind-up doll’? Japan’s PM faces backlash over White House fawning

White House imagery showing Sanae Takaichi cheering for a rock song and laughing at a jibe at Joe Biden left some in Japan feeling ‘ashamed’.

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North Korea

North Korea’s Kim slams US ‘state terror’ but spares Trump in third-term address

Mindful of the fate of Iran and Venezuela’s leaders, Kim Jong-un used his speech to cast nuclear weapons as a non-negotiable shield.

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Japan

In Japan, trains will get an extra 20 seconds to avert catastrophe from quakes

Tokyo has predicted an 80 per cent chance of a magnitude-9 quake in the next 30 years, that could cause 300,000 deaths.

Tsunami waves hit a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, in 2012. Photo: AP/Kyodo News
Tsunami waves hit a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, in 2012. Photo: AP/Kyodo News
China exports

What does Iran war mean for China’s export machine?

Crisis sparks debate: will it cripple global demand or show that China’s supply-side resilience, proven during pandemic, remains in place?

Japan

Japanese national back home after Iran detention

While the person, detained last year, is now free, another Japanese national - said to be a journalist - has been in custody since January.

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China exports

China cuts some hi-tech metals sent to Japan – but magnet exports rise. Why?

Exports of gallium and germanium have slowed, yet rare earth magnet shipments have increased amid strained ties.

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Blocks with symbols and atomic numbers of rare earth elements in this illustration taken on February 6. Photo: Reuters
Japan

Most Japanese oppose helping Trump fight his war on Iran, polls show

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says she has explained to Trump that there are limits to what Japan can do due to legal constraints.

Donald Trump and Sanae Takaichi talk in the Oval Office of the White House on Saturday. Photo: White House/Planet Pix/Zuma Press Wire/dpa
Donald Trump and Sanae Takaichi talk in the Oval Office of the White House on Saturday. Photo: White House/Planet Pix/Zuma Press Wire/dpa
South Korea

South Korea’s hurry-hurry spirit keeps killing its factory workers

Nine of the 14 people killed in Friday’s factory fire in Daejeon died in a room that did not officially exist.

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South Korea

BTS’ South Korea comeback crowd disappoints, triggering stock sell-off

The reunion concert drew 104,000 fans – less than half the 260,000 police had expected.

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Malaysia

Should wives always obey? Most in Malaysia and Indonesia say yes

A new study also shows 64 per cent of respondents in Singapore agree that efforts to give women equal rights with men ‘have gone far enough’.

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A Malaysian couple hold hands. A new study has found that 60 per cent of respondents from Malaysia agreed with the statement that “a wife should always obey her husband”. Photo: Shutterstock
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