Top Asia Pacific Breaking News Stories

HONG KONG (AP) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung arrived in China on Sunday as Beijing looks to deepen ties with the nearby country after heightened tensions between China and Japan over Taiwan, a self-ruled island it claims as its sovereign territory. Lee’s four-day trip is his first visit to China since taking office in June. It comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and Japan, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in November that her country’s military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan. China’s official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday afternoon that Lee arrived in Beijing.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Sunday, its neighbors said, just hours before South Korea’s president left for China for talks expected to cover North Korea’s nuclear program. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement it detected several ballistic missile launches from North Korea’s capital region around 7:50 a.m. It said the missiles flew about 900 kilometers (560 miles) and that South Korea and U.S. authorities were analyzing details of the launches. South Korea’s Defense Ministry noted the launches violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic activities by North Korea.

BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates’ sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain. It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule. The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo. State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 6,134 prisoners. A separate statement said 52 foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesian rescuers recovered a second body Sunday in the ongoing search for a Spanish soccer coach and two of his children who went missing after a tour boat sank during their Christmas holiday. The rescue team retrieved the body floating near Padar island, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the site of the sinking, said Fathur Rahman, the Maumere Search and Rescue Office chief. The newly recovered body remains unidentified by authorities, but is believed to be that of a member of the family who was on a holiday in Indonesia’s Komodo National Park area. Rahman said the body was transported to a hospital in Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to the park in eastern Indonesia, for identification.

HARBIN, China (AP) – Each January, an odd and beautiful thing happens in the frigid northeastern Chinese city of Harbin. Some would argue that the place, the capital of Heilongjiang province, has enough ice already. But sculptors converge on the town not far from China’s border with Russia to bring out more of it, and to compete for the best ice sculpture of the year. The effect is dreamlike. Sculptures are lit from within, and a section of the city becomes a magical expanse that feels like a holiday TV special. Families journey from distant locations to see the sculptures – and bundle up while doing so.

BEIJING (AP) – Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin will visit China from Sunday and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the first visit by an Irish leader in 14 years, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Saturday. Beijing has been strengthening ties with individual members of the European Union despite tensions with the EU bloc over tariffs and human rights issues. In late 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish King Felipe VI met with Xi in separate trips to China. During his five-day trip, Martin will also meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who had invited him, and Zhao Leji, chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the ministry said in a statement.

BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s military-appointed election body has begun announcing the winners of the first phase of its three-part general election, saying that the military-backed party has won the majority of seats, as widely expected. Critics of the current system say that the election is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo. They charge the polls are neither free nor fair because of the exclusion of major parties and government repression of dissenters. Opposition groups have called for a boycott by voters. The military government said Wednesday that more than 6 million people – about 52% of the more than 11 million eligible voters in the first phase of elections held Dec.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The teenage daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made her first known visit to a sacred family mausoleum, a step that experts say bolstered her status as her father’s potential heir. The visit, which occurred on New Year’s Day on Thursday, even sparked speculation that the girl, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and aged about 13, could be named a high-level official at the upcoming ruling Workers’ Party congress. Images carried by North Korea’s state media on Friday showed Kim Ju Ae standing in the front row with her parents and deeply bowing at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the embalmed bodies of her late grandfather and great-grandfather are on display.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – An Air India pilot was arrested at Vancouver International Airport last week as he was preparing for a flight, with Canada’s transportation agency warning the airline that it faced loss of its flight authorizations if it did not comply with rules about alcohol consumption. Transport Canada said in a statement Friday that the incident took place on Dec. 23, and it would engage with Air India and Indian aviation authorities to ensure “appropriate followup actions” were taken. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the arrest occurred after a “report of concern” involving an airline crew member.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesia on Friday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022.