Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States will be held responsible if the opportunity for diplomacy over the Korean peninsula issue is lost, North Korea’s vice foreign minister was quoted as saying by the South’s Yonhap news agency on Friday.

The comments by Vice Minister Choe Son Hui, who is a close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a one of the North’s key nuclear negotiators, were the latest effort by Pyongyang to press Washington for a change in attitude amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

SEOUL, Nov 22 (NNN-YONHAP) — The termination of a major arrangement between South Korea and Japan on exchanging military information was imminent Friday amid no news of a breakthrough, with concerns about its consequences growing.

Last-minute diplomatic consultations were apparently under way to avert the doom of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) ahead of its expiry slated for 12 a.m. Saturday.

Realistically, however, chances seem low that Seoul and Tokyo will strike a deal before the deadline, Yonhap News Agency reported.

NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan’s foreign minister agreed on Friday to visit Russia next month for talks about a formal World War Two peace treaty, a ministry official said, following a decades-old dispute that has prevented the countries from reaching a pact.

Toshimitsu Motegi agreed with counterpart Sergei Lavrov to visit Russia in mid-December and discuss the issue, the official said at a briefing on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) nations in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank launched on Friday a fresh crackdown on cryptocurrency trading in the financial hub of Shanghai, after Beijing’s promotion of blockchain technology reignited interest in virtual currencies.

The move came a day after financial regulators in Shenzhen launched a similar campaign, and as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is preparing to launch its own digital currency.

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's presidential Blue House said Friday that it decided to suspend the scheduled termination of the military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

Kim You-geun, deputy director of the National Security Office (NSO) of the Blue House, made the remark during a televised press conference, saying the "effectiveness of the GSOMIA expiration notification" will be halted.

Beijing, Nov 22 (AFP) China on Friday accused the US of "provocative" conduct after two US warships sailed near islands claimed by Beijing this week, adding to tensions between the global powers.

The US Navy regularly conducts "freedom of navigation operations" in the disputed South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have competing claims.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy was 2.1% bigger than earlier estimated, the government said Friday, revising the gross domestic product for 2018 to 91.93 trillion yuan ($13.1 trillion) based on results of a census.

The National Bureau of Statistics said Friday the revision reflects more complete measures of the services sector and assets. It raises the possibility China’s communist leaders will attain their target of doubling the country’s GDP between 2010 and 2020.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday that Beijing wants to work for a trade deal with the United States but is not afraid to “fight back.”

Reinforcing the upbeat tone adopted by China in recent days, Xi told a visiting U.S. business delegation that China holds a ‘positive attitude’ toward the trade talks.

“As we always said we don’t want to start the trade war but we are not afraid,” Xi said. “When necessary we will fight back but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war.”

BEIJING (AP) — Stocks logged modest gains Friday in Asia after a lackluster overnight session on Wall Street ended with the market’s third straight drop.

Upbeat comments by Chinese officials helped alleviate worries over progress in resolving the tariff war between the two largest economies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told a visiting delegation on Friday that he hoped to work toward a resolution of the dispute, though Beijing was not “afraid” and would “fight back” if necessary.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The parents of a former U.S. hostage who died after being released from North Korea in a coma in 2017 say they are committed to finding and shutting down illicit North Korean business assets around the world in efforts to hold its government accountable for widespread human rights abuses.

In a news conference in Seoul on Friday, Fred and Cindy Warmbier also called for the Trump administration to raise North Korea’s human rights problems as it engages in negotiations to defuse the country’s nuclear threat.