South Korea welcomed a record 2.06 million foreign visitors in March, led by Chinese arrivals, government data showed on Thursday, with tourism spending lifted ‌by the comeback tour of K-pop supergroup BTS after a years-long hiatus. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the monthly record helped lift first-quarter arrivals by 23 per cent from a year ago to 4.76 millio...

A Japanese man arrested for abandoning the body of his stepson who had been missing for weeks has admitted to killing the boy and allegedly hiding the corpse in different locations amid an extensive search by police in Kyoto prefecture. The arrest on Thursday morning marked a dramatic turn of events in the investigation, which was launched when 11-year-old Yuki Adachi went missi...

Japan’s public has once again signalled strong support for a woman ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne, but Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first female leader, is pushing in a different direction. A Mainichi newspaper poll published on Wednesday found that 61 per cent of respondents believed the law should be changed to allow a woman to become emperor, against ju...

Having invested significant diplomatic capital into ties with Russia in recent years, North Korea now seems to be pivoting back to China. Leader Kim Jong-un said his country places “the greatest value” on improving ties with Beijing. This shift came during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s two-day visit to North Korea last week, where he met Kim and North Korean Foreign Ministe...

North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its abilities to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, as it steps up activity at a key complex, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said. Enriching uranium can provide an alternative, and experts say, a more effective, path to acquiring weapons-grade material in addition to ‌reprocessi...