North Korea launches a barrage of more than 20 missiles, including at least three toward South Korean territory.
Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story is just ahead, but first, making headlines.
South Korea’s National Police Agency chief acknowledged failures in handling last weekend’s deadly Halloween crowd surge that killed more than 150 people in Seoul. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared a one-week national mourning period, placed flowers near the disaster scene.
Indonesia’s human rights commission released an incident report Wednesday finding the main cause of the deadly stampede during a soccer match last month was due to police firing tear gas into the crowd.
A sedition trial began in Hong Kong for two former top editors of closed online media outlet Stand News. They have been detained without bail for 10 months. The trial is expected to last about three weeks.
Some workers in a Foxconn factory in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou appear to have left to avoid COVID-19 restrictions this week, with many traveling on foot for days after an unknown number of employees were quarantined following an outbreak in one of the world’s biggest iPhone factories.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met in Thailand on Wednesday and discussed strategies to tackle human trafficking. Both countries signed pacts on training to counter human trafficking, climate change and technology transfer.
China launched the third and final module on Monday to complete its permanent space station. This is the final step in a more than decade-long endeavor to maintain a constant crewed presence in orbit.
North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles on Thursday, including one that triggered an alert for residents in parts of central and northern Japan to seek shelter.
The launches came after North Korea fired more than 20 missiles Wednesday, including at least three toward South Korean territory. VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul, South Korea.
Air raid alarms blaring on South Korean television, warning residents to evacuate.
North Korea’s unprecedented missile barrage adds to its record-high number of launches this year.
The launches happen so frequently that most South Korean residents barely notice. But on South Korea’s Ulleung island, residents heard loud air raid alerts.
Another North Korean missile landed south of the de facto sea border.
“This North Korean missile launch, which marks the first time since the division of the peninsula that has landed near our territorial waters south of the NLL, is very rare and we can never tolerate it. Our military will firmly respond to it."
In response, South Korean warplanes launched three missiles across the sea border. It is the first time since the 1950s for either country to take that step. On Wednesday, they both did.
North Korea is upset at the United States and South Korea for conducting joint military drills. The North sees the exercises as provocations. Washington says the drills are defensive.
Hundreds of warplanes are involved in the latest military drills.
“North Korea is also expected to continue its displays of military strength. With each side blaming the other for raising tensions, it’s hard for now to know when the cycle of tensions ends. Bill Gallo. VOA News. Seoul, South Korea”
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Sri Lankan police blocked more than a thousand protesters who were attempting to march to the capital's main railroad station on Wednesday.
Demonstrators are demanding the release of two detained protest leaders and an end to a government crackdown on protests against an economic crisis that has engulfed the island nation for months.
Finally, Taiwan has welcomed a pair of experts from China to help with an ailing panda in a rare opportunity for contact between the sides.
The two experts arrived Tuesday after Taipei Zoo’s Tuan Tuan, suspected to have a malignant brain tumor, took a turn for the worse.
The giant panda and his mate, Yuan Yuan, were given to the zoo in 2008 during a time of warming relations between China and Taiwan.
Ties have deteriorated since then, with Beijing cutting off contacts in 2016 following the election of independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen, who was re-elected in 2020.
China sends pandas abroad as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over the animals and any cubs they produce.
That’s all the time we have here on VOA Asia Weekly.
Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Chris Casquejo. Please be sure to tune in again next week.
