Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voiced support for China's push to build a "multipolar world" and called for deeper ties between the traditional allies during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, state media said Saturday. During the meeting Friday, Kim said his government will fully support Chinese efforts to achieve territorial integrity based on its "one-China principle," a reference to Beijing's official position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. Kim also outlined North Korea's position on unspecified regional and international issues of "mutual concern" and said sustained development of ties between the two countries has become more crucial in the current geopolitical environment, KCNA said.

BEIJING (AP) - The messaging from China's Communist government may once have been dogmatic and rigid - not anymore. Having largely tamed the internet at home with tight censorship, Beijing is now tapping the power of social media and artificial intelligence to tell its story - and often to skewer the U.S. and its president. In a five-minute AI-generated animation modeled after classic martial arts movies, China's state media frames out an allegory for the war in Iran. A white eagle in regal attire representing the U.S. unleashes an evil laugh before his army attacks a group of Persian cats draped in black cloaks standing in for Iranians, who vow to fight after losing their leader and close off a crucial trading route.

BANGKOK (AP) - Min Aung Hlaing, who as Myanmar 's military commander had led the Southeast Asian nation with an iron fist since seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021, was sworn in as an elected president on Friday. His inauguration came after a general election judged by U.N. experts and rights groups to be neither free nor fair, with Suu Kyi's popular National League for Democracy party among many not taking part. He faces the major challenge of ending the civil war that began when Suu Kyi's ouster from power met with armed resistance. The transition back to a nominally democratic government is widely seen as an effort to keep the army in power behind a facade of civilian rule.

TIYAN, Guam (AP) - A typhoon in Micronesia is expected to gain strength this weekend and move northwest toward Guam, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to issue warnings about flooding and high winds. Typhoon Sinlaku could reach the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane when it passes near or just south of Guam early next week, AccuWeather International Meteorologist Tyler Roys said. "This storm is a serious threat to the island of Guam," Roys said Saturday in a statement. "Sinlaku will produce destructive winds and flooding rainfall, likely leading to power outages and structural damage." The Coast Guard is warning people in the U.S.

GWACHEON, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's justice minister has pledged to expand access to judicial remedies for victims of state-led abuses, including foreign adoptees whose adoptions were marred by widespread fraud under previous military governments. Using unusually strong language for a senior South Korean official, Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said the country's past adoptions amounted to "forced child trafficking" and that the government will largely refrain from appealing rulings in cases brought by victims seeking compensation for government wrongdoing. Jung spoke Thursday in a roundtable interview with selected journalists. Hundreds of Korean adoptees in the West have already requested that their cases be investigated by a fact-finding commission reviewing past human rights violations.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) - An overcrowded tourist boat capsized in the Yamuna river in northern India on Friday, leaving at least 10 people dead, officials said. The accident occurred near the temple town of Vrindavan, a major Hindu pilgrimage site in Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the privately operated boat, which had a capacity of about 15 passengers, was carrying around 25 people when it overturned midstream. Preliminary findings indicated strong winds caused the vessel to sway before it struck a pontoon bridge and capsized. Senior administrative officer Chandraprakash Singh said 15 people were rescued, four of them in critical condition.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - On a recent weekend afternoon, at a Chinese comedy show in northern Virginia, the host asked the audience, "What food do you like?" The loudest answer echoed through the hall: "Chick-fil-A!" "You still haven't gotten your H-1B lottery, ha?" quipped the host, citing the most popular work visa among Chinese students. It's an easy-to-get joke in the Chinese student community, where those eager for U.S. visas believe their chances at success might hinge upon something unexpected: an American chicken sandwich and the company behind it. Chick-fil-A has no branches in China. But the brand has enticed Chinese students in the U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The foreign ministers of North Korea and China agreed to further deepen cooperation and exchanges between their countries and had an "in-depth exchange" on international issues, the countries' state media outlets reported Friday. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flew to Pyongyang on Thursday in his first visit to North Korea in seven years. China's Xinhua news agency said Wang and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui discussed current international and regional issues at their meeting Thursday but didn't specify what those issues were. The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported they also agreed to strengthen strategic communication between their agencies handling foreign policy.

BEIJING (AP) - Taiwan's opposition leader met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, the first such encounter in over a decade, with both sides affirming the need for maintaining peace around the self-ruled island that China claims as its territory. Both Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Beijing-friendly Kuomingtang Party, reiterated they wanted to move toward a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the mainland, though it remains unclear how they would achieve it. China hasn't ruled out the use of force and has stepped up its military exercises around Taiwan, sending warships and fighter jets closer toward the island and steadily poaching Taiwan's few remaining diplomatic allies.

WASHINGTON (AP) - With a fragile ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran holding for now, China is calculating its role in helping find a durable endgame to the war in the Middle East. After prodding China, which is more reliant on Persian Gulf oil than the U.S., to get involved in reopening the choked-off Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump told the French news outlet Agence France-Presse this week that he believed China played a part in encouraging Iran to agree to this week's temporary truce. Three diplomats who were familiar with China's behind-the-scenes efforts also confirmed that Beijing, the biggest purchaser of Iranian oil, used its leverage to urge the Iranians back to the negotiating table.