May 1, 2026

Asia Watch

Myanmar rebels claim to have shot down a fighter jet being used by military to attack ground targets– abcnews.go.com

pgnewser June 10, 2025 0

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BANGKOK — A military fighter jet crashed and burned Tuesday in an area that has seen intense fighting during Myanmar’s civil war, with a rebel group claiming to have shot it down while state-run media reported it suffered a mechanical failure.

The aircraft went down midday in the Sagaing region, about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of Mandalay, Myanmar ‘s second largest city, according to state-run MRTV television.

It did not identify the type of jet or mention casualties, and said a search and recovery effort was underway in Pale township where it went down.

Local media reports identified the plane as the two-seater Chinese FTC-2000G, a fighter ground-attack jet, and broadcast images of a crashed plane with body parts nearby.

Sagaing region is a stronghold of armed resistance to the military, which seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Opposition to the takeover began peacefully, but escalated into a civil war as the authorities resorted increasingly to lethal force to quell dissent.

Insurgency Intensifies in Southwest Myanmar • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org

pgnewser June 5, 2025 0

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Since launching its sweeping offensive in November 2023, the Arakan Army (AA) has positioned itself to seize its home state, Rakhine, from the Myanmar military. On the eastern fringe of the Bay of Bengal, Rakhine has made international headlines as the site of the 2017 Rohingya genocide and the host to major Indian and Chinese infrastructure projects. The impact of Rakhine’s fall for those issues has been well-explored elsewhere. Less examined is how AA allies in southwest Myanmar have mobilized to support their patron, the AA, and how the group could shape the wider conflict. Although the AA is an avowedly ethnonationalist rebel group primarily interested in self-determination for Rakhine, it has expressed solidarity with the broader anti-junta movement and built up an extensive network of allies within it.

The axis that has emerged as a result has enabled the AA to expand its influence close to India in Chin State, threaten the military’s industrial base in Magway and Bago regions, and endanger the junta’s grip on the rice bowl of Ayeyarwady Region. As of early 2025, the AA is now the premier benefactor of insurgent activity in the southwest, with at least 17 groups and likely far more that have fought alongside and in parallel to the AA in Rakhine, Chin, Bago, Magway, and Ayeyarwady. This has greatly threatened the junta, complicated the AA’s relationship with the National Unity Government (NUG), and further entrenched its place in Chin state. Through these alliances, the AA has the power to greatly impact the trajectory of Myanmar’s civil war.

 

Mongolian PM’s Son’s “Lavish Lifestyle” Leads to His Resignation

pgnewser June 5, 2025 0

Mongolia PM resigns amid protests over his son’s lavish lifestyle– www.bbc.com
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Mongolian prime minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene has resigned after losing a confidence vote in parliament.

The vote followed days of mass protests over corruption allegations – fuelled by social media posts about his son’s lavish birthday party and engagement.

Oyun-Erdene, who took office in 2021, will remain as caretaker PM until a successor is appointed within 30 days.

“It was an honour to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs,” he said after the vote.

He had to stand down as he fell short of a majority, or 64 of the 126-seat parliament. Some 82 lawmakers took part in the secret ballot, 44 of whom voted for Oyun-Erdene, while 38 voted against him.

Hundreds of protesters, many of them young people, had been taking to the streets for two weeks before the vote, demanding Oyun-Erdene’s resignation.

South Korea’s new president vows to restart talks with North – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser June 5, 2025 0

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South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung vowed Wednesday to restart dormant talks with North Korea and bolster a trilateral partnership with the U.S. and Japan, as he laid out key policy goals for his single, five-year term.

Lee, who rose from childhood poverty to become South Korea’s leading liberal politician vowing to fight inequality and corruption, began his term earlier Wednesday, hours after winning a snap election that was triggered in April by the removal of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated imposition of martial law late last year.

In his inaugural address at the National Assembly, Lee said that his government will deal with North Korean nuclear threats and its potential military aggressions with “strong deterrence” based on the South Korea-U.S. military alliance. But he said he would “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation.”

He said he’ll pursue pragmatic diplomacy with neighbouring countries and boost trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo cooperation.

“Through pragmatic diplomacy based on national interests, we will turn the crisis posed by the major shift in global economic and security landscapes into an opportunity to maximize our national interests,” Lee said.

Why Mongolia’s Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Resigned– time.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrain became Mongolia’s Prime Minister in 2021, after gaining prominence by helping to organize mass protests against corruption. Now, after protesters have taken to the streets accusing him of corruption, which he has denied, he’s resigned.

Oyun-Erdene lost a vote of confidence in parliament on Monday, according to a parliamentary statement, failing to secure a majority 64 votes in the 126-seat body. Only 82 lawmakers voted in the secret ballot, which yielded only 44 in approval of Oyun-Erdene.

“It was an honour to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs,” Oyun-Erdene said after the vote.

Oyun-Erdene, whose center-left ruling Mongolian People’s Party retained a majority but formed a coalition with opposition parties anyway after legislative elections last year, will remain as caretaker Prime Minister until his successor is appointed within 30 days.

North Korea, Which Regularly Threatens to Nuke U.S., Condemns Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’– www.breitbart.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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The communist regime of North Korea published an outraged screed on Tuesday denouncing President Donald Trump’s plan to implement a “Golden Dome” missile defense system over the United States, and potentially other parts of North America.

President Trump campaigned throughout 2024 on investing in a missile defense system covering the entire United States designed to protect America from the threat of hypersonic, ballistic, and other advanced missiles, referring to it as akin to Israel’s “Iron Dome” system. A week after taking office for his second term, Trump issued an executive order requiring a plan from the incoming secretary of defense within 60 days for a missile defense architecture of this type.

The White House announced last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had indeed selected an architecture for the missile defense system, called the “Golden Dome.” President Trump described the system as featuring “next-generation technologies across the land, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors” and indicated that the scope of the project is so large that the government of Canada is also interested in participating in the project.

North Korea latest adversary to criticize Trump’s Golden Dome– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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North Korea, much like China and Russia in recent weeks, issued a scathing rebuke on Tuesday of President Donald Trump‘s pursuit of his Golden Dome missile defense system.

Trump has made the Golden Dome — a comprehensive air defense system that, once operational, will be able to intercept various missiles fired from land, sea, and space — a signature of his military policy early in his second term in office.

North Korea‘s foreign ministry said that Trump’s plan is the “height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice, and is an outer space nuclear war scenario supporting the U.S. strategy for uni-polar domination with the preemptive establishment of the outer space-based military substructure, not a ‘defensive measure’ to cope with the ‘threat’ from someone.”

The ministry accused the U.S. of being “hell-bent on the moves to military outer space,” while claiming that the plan for the Golden Dome, as outlined by the Trump administration, “is also the expression of another attempt to militarize outer space coming from the past strategies for dominating outer space and the epitome of revealing the criminal past of the U.S. which plunged the whole world into the nightmare of the outbreak of a nuclear war.”

Mongolia Becomes Unstable in Wake of Anti-PM Protests

pgnewser May 22, 2025 0

Mongolia’s Coalition government appears to be coming undone after only 10 months as protests push into the second week across the country demanding the current PM resign and a new election take place.

Protests against prime minister in Mongolia could lead to government shake-up– abcnews.go.com
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ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — Mongolia’s 10-month-old coalition government appeared to be breaking up as protests calling on the prime minister to resign entered their ninth day.

The leaders of the three governing parties were meeting Thursday to review their coalition agreement, one day after the largest one — the Mongolian People’s Party — decided to eject the second largest from the coalition.

The People’s Party accused the Democratic Party of breaching the agreement after some of its younger lawmakers backed calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai.

Democratic Party leader Gantumur Luvsannyam, who is the deputy prime minister, said that the views of those legislators were not the party’s position.

“I never signed anything saying I would gag my members. I know my party’s temperament,” he said.

The fate of the prime minister was unclear ahead of a parliament session on Friday. Oyun-Erdene has held the post for four years and survived previous calls to step down.

North Korean warship launch ends in disaster while Kim Jong-un watches | World | News– www.express.co.uk

pgnewser May 22, 2025 0

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A dramatic launch ceremony for a newly built 5,000-ton warship turned into a nightmare in North Korea – right in front of Kim Jong-un, reports the Korean Central News Agency.

The dictator personally attended the high-profile unveiling at Cheongjin Shipyard on May 21, only for the event to end in disaster when a serious accident struck during the launch.

What should have been a proud moment for the regime ended in chaos as the launch process spiralled out of control. Officials failed to coordinate the the launch sequence.

The mistake saw the stern sled release prematurely, becoming stranded, and leaving the bow section hopele

Trump wants South Korea to pay more for U.S. troops on their soil– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser May 22, 2025 0

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Sharing the costs of hosting U.S. troops in allied countries has been a favorite topic of U.S. President Donald Trump since his first term in the White House.

But as more countries try to eke out a deal to escape the spectre of tariffs in his second term, Trump is making his own moves: bundling negotiations on trade, tariffs, and defense cost-sharing into a single comprehensive deal, which he called “one-stop shopping.”

One such country in his sights is South Korea, which is home to about 28,500 U.S. troops known as U.S. Forces Korea. On April 8, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had discussed “payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea,” among other issues, with then-acting president Han Duck-soo.

“We are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. “ONE STOP SHOPPING” is a beautiful and efficient process!!!” Trump wrote.

South Korea’s former President Moon indicted for alleged bribery– www.euronews.com

pgnewser May 5, 2025 0

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Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in was indicted Thursday on bribery charges, accused of accepting illegal favours through a no-show job arranged for his then-son-in-law during his term in office.

Prosecutors say Moon received bribes worth 217 million won (€133,239) from Thai Eastar Jet founder Lee Sang-jik, who allegedly provided wages, housing, and other financial support to Moon’s former son-in-law between 2018 and 2020.

Lee, a former campaign associate of Moon’s, was also indicted for bribery and breach of trust.

The son-in-law was reportedly hired at Lee’s Thailand-based airline company in a director-level role despite having no aviation experience and carried out only minor duties while claiming to be working remotely from South Korea.

Myanmar Junta Rejects Bangladeshi Call for Rohingya State – The Irrawaddy

pgnewser May 5, 2025 0

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Myanmar’s regime has rejected a proposal by Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, for the creation of an independent Rohingya state in Rakhine State.

Jamaat made the proposal during a meeting with a Communist Party of China (CPC) delegation in Dhaka on Sunday. China has not responded.

The Jamaat delegation’s leader Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher told reporters that around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were enduring “inhumane conditions” and humanitarian aid was not a solution.

South Korean Court Convicts, Removes President

pgnewser April 4, 2025 0

After standing trial for allegedly staging an armed coup, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol has been convicted by the highest court. The President is now officially removed from office, though he has effectively been suspended since his arrest. By law, an election must take place within 60 days to replace him.

Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae wrote in the ruling, “[Yoon] committed a grave betrayal of the people’s trust. Sending armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree violated the political neutrality of the armed forces.”

ED.NOTE: Yoon was pro-western. He was accusing the opposition party of being infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party. The removal of Yeol is seen by some as a move by China to conquer South Korea from within. MI will continue to monitor this country, which should be considered at high risk of falling to authoritarianism from within.

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office after trying to stage armed coup– www.thesun.co.uk
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SOUTH Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been removed from office after attempting to stage an armed coup in the country.

The leader had declared martial law and violated the constitution by mobilising military and police forces to obstruct the parliament in December.

The declaration of martial law, which lasted only about six hours, sparked the country’s worst political crisis in decades.

The judges said in their ruling that Yoon’s actions “violate the core principles of the rule of law and democratic governance”.

They also slammed him for deploying troops for “political purpose”.