North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called South Korea “our principal enemy” and threatened to annihilate it if provoked, as he escalates his inflammatory, belligerent rhetoric against Seoul and the United States before their elections this year. Kim’s threat comes as the White House said it has evidence that Russia has fired additional North Korean-provided ballistic missiles at Ukraine.  …

Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for January 13, 2024, are taking place amid heightened tensions with China, which claims the self-governing island as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification.  Beijing has increased its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Taipei, while also conducting a campaign of influence and interference …

Salmon, a financial technology company working to improve access to credit, savings and investments for over 500 million underserved customers in Southeast Asia, has received regulatory approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to acquire the controlling interest in Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), a licensed financial institution serving Filipino communities since 1963.  Salmon will own 59.7% of …

Mary Jane Veloso, a 38-year-old Filipina domestic worker, was arrested in 2010 at the airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. She was sentenced to death by firing squad in 2015, but was granted a last-minute reprieve after the Philippine government intervened.  Veloso has always maintained her innocence, claiming that she was duped by …

South Korea has reaffirmed its position to China via diplomatic channels after Beijing reacted against a joint statement by South Korea, the United States and Japan on the South China Sea, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday.  The statement, issued last week after the inaugural meeting of the trilateral Indo-Pacific dialogue, criticized China’s “unlawful” claims and “recent dangerous and escalatory …

South Korea’s intelligence agency has claimed that North Korea was involved in the recent Gaza war by supplying missile parts and technology to Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the coastal enclave.  According to the agency, North Korea sold Hamas hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rocket-propelled grenades, communication equipment, and guidance systems for rockets and missiles¹². The …

Malaysia is one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to develop a code of ethics and governance for artificial intelligence (AI), which will form the basis of AI regulation in the country.  The code of ethics and governance is expected to be ready by next year, and will be aligned with the Seven Principles of Responsible AI, which are …

An American expatriate in Singapore learned the hard way that racism does not pay, after he was fined US$4,000 for hurling racial slurs at a Russian woman in a Hainanese restaurant. The man, who was identified as David Christopher James Roach, also faced other consequences for his offensive behavior, such as losing his job, facing public backlash, and being banned …

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that the diplomatic efforts with China over the South China Sea dispute are heading “in a poor direction” and that a “paradigm shift” is needed to resolve the issue.  Marcos, who spoke to Japanese media during his visit to Tokyo for the ASEAN-Japan summit, said that China has been disregarding the traditional methods of …

South Korea’s spy agency has exposed North Korea‘s secret weapons deals with Hamas, the militant group that is engaged in a war with Israel, by releasing a photo of a North Korean rocket part that was allegedly used by Hamas fighters.  The photo, which shows a fuse with Korean characters and numbers, confirms a previous report by Voice of America …