U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to seek their support in pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

Tillerson’s first meeting with all members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also address another pressing regional issue – China’s assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, where several ASEAN members have competing claims.

Tillerson told reporters at the start of the Washington meeting that he and his counterparts would discuss North Korea.

Last week in the U.N. Security Council, Tillerson called on all U.N. members to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, which has ignored demands to abandon its weapons programs and is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States.

He also called on countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, saying it abuses diplomatic privileges to help fund the arms programs. Tillerson warned countries that if they did not do so, Washington would sanction foreign firms and people conducting business with North Korea.

All ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with North Korea and five have embassies there.

The Trump administration wants Southeast Asian countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and restrict legal business too, U.S. officials said.

The administration has been working to persuade China, North Korea’s neighbor and only major ally, to increase pressure on Pyongyang. U.S. officials say they are also asking China to use its influence with more China-friendly ASEAN members, such as Laos and Cambodia, to persuade them to do the same.

U.S. efforts have included a flurry of calls by President Donald Trump at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Diplomats say U.S. pressure has caused some irritation in ASEAN, including Malaysia, which has maintained relations with Pyongyang in spite of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International airport on Feb. 13.

On the South China Sea, ASEAN has adopted a cautious approach recently toward China, with a weekend summit of its leaders avoiding references to Beijing’s building and arming of islands there.

Analysts say this reflects concerns among some in the region that former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia has been abandoned in favor of Trump’s “America First” agenda, leading to more countries being pulled into Beijing’s orbit.

 
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A former Afghan warlord who became the first insurgent to sign on to a peace deal has arrived in Kabul with an entourage of more than 100 pick-up trucks packed with his men, some brandishing automatic rifles and rocket launchers.

Thursday’s appearance in the Afghan capital was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s first in 21 years.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani welcomed Hekmatyar to the presidential palace. Ghani is championing a peace deal he hopes would be embraced by others.

But Taliban spokesman, Zabihulah Mujahid, promptly told The Associated Press over the telephone the insurgents consider Hekmatyar’s visit to Kabul insignificant.

Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami group was thrown out by the Taliban in 1996, when the insurgents imposed their harsh brand of Islamic rule across Afghanistan, at the same time ending brutal infighting among militant groups.
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A Komodo dragon has bitten an overly inquisitive tourist in Indonesia who ignored warnings about getting too close to the enormous reptile while it was eating, a national park official said.

The tourist from Singapore was bitten on his leg Wednesday morning while taking pictures of the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard, said the chief of the Komodo National Park, Sudiyono.

Sudiyono said the man was rescued by locals and rushed to a hospital in Labuan Bajo on Flores Island, near Komodo Island, for treatment.

Endangered Komodo dragons are found in the wild on several eastern Indonesian islands. They can grow to 3 meters (10 feet) or more in length.

Attacks on humans are rare but may increase as Indonesia is promoting the Komodo National Park as a tourist destination. In 2013, a guide and a park ranger were attacked in separate incidents.

Experts say the Komodo dragon population in the wild is less than 4,000 but stable.

 
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The Vatican and Myanmar have agreed to establish diplomatic relations at a time when the Buddhist-majority country is accused of increasing religious and ethnic intolerance.

The announcement came Thursday, the same day that Pope Francis met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s top civilian leader.

Myanmar’s government is facing international criticism for its activities in the western state of Rakhine, where troops are accused of carrying out widespread abuses against the Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority in what the government says is a counter-insurgency operation.

Discrimination against the Rohingya is widespread and the government refuses to recognize most as citizens, treating even long-term residents as illegal immigrants.

Francis has appealed for prayers for the Rohingya, denouncing how they had been “tortured and killed, simply because they are continuing their traditions, their Muslim faith.”

The Vatican said the decision to establish diplomatic relations would “promote bonds of mutual friendship.”

About 1 percent of Myanmar’s 51 million people are Catholics. The church has been active in Myanmar – also known as Burma – for five centuries.

Francis in 2015 named Myanmar’s first cardinal, tapping the archbishop of Yangon, Charles Maung Bo.

The Holy See, a tiny, walled city state, has diplomatic relations with more than 180 countries. One of the few countries not on the list is China.

 
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A top Philippine official is to face questioning next week at the U.N. Human Rights Council on issues such as extrajudicial killings and vigilante justice alleged to be occurring in President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly fight against illegal drugs.

The Philippines is one of 14 countries whose records are being examined in the latest session of the Universal Periodic Review, which examines issues in all 193 U.N. member states. Britain is on tap Thursday, and the Philippines’ anti-drug campaign and moves to restore the death penalty are among the issues set for discussion Monday.

Menardo Guevarra, a senior deputy executive secretary in Duterte’s office, is leading the delegation. Also participating is senator and staunch Duterte supporter Alan Peter Cayetano, who told reporters “our strategy is simple: The facts being said about the campaign against drugs are wrong.”

HRW: Denounce war on drugs

Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on the U.N. to denounce the Philippines’ “war on drugs” that it said has left more than 7,000 suspected drug dealers and users dead since Duterte took office June 30 and to urge the country to support an international investigation into the killings.

“The U.N. review of the Philippines is critical because of the sheer magnitude of the human rights calamity since President Duterte took office last year,” said Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director. “Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ has been nothing less than a murderous war on the poor.”

Amnesty International Philippines says the review should highlight persisting problems, including the high number of extrajudicial executions and moves to reinstate the death penalty.

Government data

The government is also releasing new data in an attempt to refute death tolls ranging from more than 7,000 to 9,000 cited by human rights groups and the media that were based on previous numbers released by police.

The presidential palace, the Philippine National Police and other government agencies said Tuesday nearly 4,600 people have been killed in drug-related crime since July 1 and more than 1.2 million drug suspects have surrendered.

The government said more than 2,700 suspected drug dealers and users had been killed in police operations and 1,847 homicides had been investigated and found to be drug-related.

Police said 19.6 percent of the country’s 9,432 recorded homicides from July 1 to March 31 were drug-related. About 20 percent of homicides were unrelated to drugs, while the rest are still under investigation.

The higher figures released by police earlier and cited by media and human rights groups included deaths still under investigation, which officials now clarify were not all drug-related.

“The fact that the new PNP figures are inconsistent with the numbers released by the media or human rights organizations on extrajudicial executions, or even their own previous numbers, means that there may be more unreported cases, not less,” said Amnesty International Philippines head Ritz Lee Santos, III.

He said the police should “send a clear message that the state-sponsored unlawful killings of alleged offenders are never justified and are equivalent to extrajudicial executions which they should vow to end.”
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A sandstorm blown by gusting winds enveloped a huge area of central and northern China on Thursday in thick pollution hazardous to people venturing outdoors.

The Beijing Meteorological Observatory advised people to minimize time spent outdoors and forecast that the murky conditions would linger into Friday morning. 

Tens of millions of residents across eight provinces and autonomous regions and in municipal Beijing were told to use masks or scarves when outside to protect their eyes and lungs. The low visibility prompted warnings for drivers to slow down and for airports to take precautions.

Beijing’s air quality index topped 800 in some areas, on a scale ranking anything above 150 as unhealthy for the general population. 

The sandstorms begin in areas such as Inner Mongolia where overgrazing and deforestation have increased desert areas. Strong winds pick up loose dust and dirt, mixing them with industrial pollution.

Grit from the storms can travel as far as the western United States.
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The Asian Development Bank is holding its annual meeting in Japan, where bankers and leaders are assessing how they can support growth as income inequality grows in both rich and poor countries.

The ADB has worked for a half-century to fight poverty and support the region’s ascent as a global center of growth, but poverty remains a daunting problem for such lenders. It estimates more than $26 trillion will be needed by 2030 to build roads, ports and other infrastructure required to support economic growth and cope with the repercussions of climate change.

The Manila, Philippines-based ADB began its annual meeting in Yokohama Thursday. In 2016, the ADB issued loans totaling $31.7 billion, up 18 percent from the year before.

Poverty a ‘considerable burden’

Asia needs all the help it can get in fighting poverty as both wealthy and poor nations grapple with widening inequality, former ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, who is now Japan’s central bank governor, said in a speech earlier this week. 

“Poverty continues to be a considerable burden in Asia,” he said. 

The ADB has dozens of member nations but has been led by Japan and the U.S. since its founding in 1966.

Among many other projects, the ADB over the years has financed maternity clinics in Bangladesh, flood-control work in Chinese cities, tuna fishing in Indonesia, irrigation repairs in Nepal and fiber-optic cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world.

It has begun co-financing some projects with the China-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, which some critics view as a rival to traditional lenders like the ADB and World Bank.

Share of global commerce doubles

The past 50 years have seen Asia’s share in global commerce more than double to nearly a third of the total in 2015. Meanwhile, average lifespans have growth to 74 years in East Asia and the Pacific and to 68 in South Asia, from 49 years and 45 years, respectively.

But about 60 percent of the 1.5 billion people living in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 a day, are in Asia.

 
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North Korea has issued a rare direct criticism of China through a commentary saying its “reckless remarks” on the North’s nuclear program are testing its patience and could trigger unspecified “grave” consequences.

China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and main benefactor, suspended imports of North Korean coal in line with U.N. sanctions and has been urging its traditional ally to stop nuclear and missile activities amid U.S. pressure to use its leverage to resolve the nuclear standoff. 

The commentary released Wednesday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency said that “a string of absurd and reckless remarks are now heard from China everyday only to render the present bad situation tenser.”

The article cited commentaries by Chinese state media that it said shifted the blame for deteriorating bilateral relations onto the North and raised “lame excuses for the base acts of dancing to the tune of the U.S.”

“China should no longer try to test the limits of the DPRK’s patience,” the North Korean commentary said, using its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”

The article was not attributed to any government agency or official; the writer was identified only as Kim Chol. Still, it’s unusual for the North to directly criticize China. Previously it has couched such criticism by referring to China only as “a neighboring country.”

Chinese state media, meanwhile, have recently unleashed regular and harsh criticisms over the North’s actions.

The Global Times, an outspoken nationalist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily, warned in a Thursday editorial that the North’s actions threatened a 1961 treaty of non-aggression between the two countries. It called on the regime to end its nuclear tests.

“China will not allow its northeastern region to be contaminated by North Korea’s nuclear activities,” the Global Times declared.

In recent days, the paper also warned that China was able to strike back “at any side that crosses the red line” and would impose an oil embargo against the North in response to any more tests. The North Korean commentary said it’s China that crossed “the red line.”

The People’s Daily declared Sunday — and again on Tuesday — that the North’s nuclear ambitions “put itself and the whole region into dire peril.”
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A dust storm enveloped a swath of northern China on Thursday dragging down air quality and visibility and prompting warnings for children and old people to stay indoors.

Spring is northern China’s dust storm season, when winds whip across the vast Gobi Desert picking up fine sand and dust particles and dumping them along a belt of heavily populated land further south.

The official People’s Daily said the worst of the storm would be concentrated on a remote area along the Mongolian border, but that Beijing and locations as far away as the remote northeast of China would be affected for at least 24 hours.

Official data from the Beijing government showed average readings of small breathable particles known as PM 2.5, a major component of China’s air quality index had risen to 630 micrograms per cubic meter in parts of the city by Thursday morning.

The World Health Organization recommends concentrations of just 10 micrograms.

State television said old people and children should stay indoors to avoid the worst effects.

The dust storm underlines the environmental challenge China faces, added to existing concerns about choking smog from coal powered power plants and factories that also periodically covers much of northern China.

The government has spent billions of dollars on projects to rein in the spread of deserts, planting trees and trying to protect what plant cover remains in marginal areas.
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