Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

PYONGYANG, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday blasted South Korea and the United States for holding a joint military exercise, saying it was a violation of summit agreements they reached with the DPRK last year.

It is a violent violation of the joint declarations and statements that the DPRK reached with the United States and South Korea last year, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report.

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

"This is the most important thing we can learn from the past," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

Though a lot of changes have taken place in the world and in both countries since they established diplomatic relations four decades ago, this valuable lesson still holds true today and must be adhered to and safeguarded, Wang added.

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China will surely become stronger, but will not become assertive, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

Wang made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

He stressed that assertiveness has never been part of the Chinese tradition and hegemony will never be its choice, even the country grows stronger.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An estimated 11 million people in North Korea — over 43 percent of the population — are undernourished and “chronic food insecurity and malnutrition is widespread,” according to a U.N. report issued Wednesday.

The report by Tapan Mishra, the head of the U.N. office in North Korea, said that “widespread undernutrition threatens an entire generation of children, with one in five children stunted due to chronic undernutrition.”

BEIJING (AP) — Imports of canola, a Canadian oilseed crop, will now undergo more thorough inspections in China, the country’s customs agency said Thursday, amid what appears to be a retaliatory move amid a diplomatic row over the arrest of a Chinese executive.

Relations between Canada and China have been tense since December, when Canada arrested Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver at the request of the U.S. China warned of “grave consequences” if Canada did not immediately release Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military said Thursday it is carefully monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile facilities after the country’s spy agency told lawmakers that new activity was detected at a research center where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Downward pressure on the Chinese economy has worried global investors, but national lawmakers and political advisors attending the ongoing annual "two sessions" are optimistic about the economic outlook.

They have good reason to. While the GDP target of 6-6.5 percent for 2019 moderated from the 6.6-percent growth the country achieved last year, a series of new growth drivers have emerged that are expected to underpin the country's long-term prosperity.

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leaders on Wednesday urged for more efforts to advance high-quality development.

Li Keqiang, Wang Yang and Han Zheng -- members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee -- made the remarks at the annual "two sessions" of the country's top legislative and political advisory bodies.

06 Mar 2019; AFP: Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab said on Wednesday it has secured $1.5 billion in fresh financing from a fund run by Japan's SoftBank and will use a significant portion of it to expand in Indonesia.

Grab has seen its business grow rapidly since it bought US-based rival Uber's regional ride-hailing and food business in March last year. Uber received a 27.5 percent stake in Grab in return.

06 Mar 2019; DW: North Korea has started restoring part of a long-range rocket launch site it dismantled last year, according to a report published on Wednesday by Washington-based think tank 38 North.

Satellite evidence suggests that work had begun at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the run-up to a summit in Vietnam between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, 38 North said.