CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNN As employees return to the office in South Korea, so does gapjil — the country’s longstanding problem of toxic workplace culture. Nearly 30% of Korean office workers have experienced some form of workplace harassment in the past year, according to an online survey in June of 1,000 respondents

By Heather Chen, CNN China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Myanmar’s junta leaders to talk to their opponents amid concerns over escalating violence and deteriorating human rights in the Southeast Asian country. Wang is in Myanmar for his first visit since the junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Su Kyi

By Kathleen Magramo and Lauren Lau, CNN A rescue team from mainland China saved a crew member of a ship that broke in half and sank during Typhoon Chaba in the early hours of Monday morning — just hours after their counterparts in Hong Kong said a “miracle” would be needed to find any more

By Wayne Chang and Ivana Kottasová, CNN A Hong Kong lawmaker who was photographed standing close to Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week announced Sunday he had tested positive for Covid-19. Steve Ho Chun-Yin said he tested negative on Thursday when he attended the photo session during the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of

Story by Reuters North Korea has criticized an agreement between the United States, South Korea and Japan to strengthen military cooperation — claiming it is part of a US plan to create a military alliance like NATO in the region. North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson said as much to a question put by KCNA, the

By Hannah Ritchie and Sahar Akbarzai, CNN The Taliban’s supreme leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada has once again warned foreigners not to interfere in Afghanistan during a rare speech at a gathering of Islamic clerics in Kabul on Friday, according to state media. The reclusive leader told the conference that Afghanistan “cannot develop without being independent,”

By Eric Cheung, CNN Wang Chen-wei and Chen Jun-ru are unique among parents in Taiwan. This year, in a landmark legal case, the two men became the first same-sex couple on the island to legally adopt a child neither of them are related to. Now they’re living their family dream with daughter Joujou, 4, in

CNN By Wayne Chang and Ivana Kottasová, CNN A Hong Kong lawmaker who was photographed standing close to Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week announced Sunday he had tested positive for Covid-19. Steve Ho Chun-Yin said he tested negative on Thursday when he attended the photo session during the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary

By Nectar Gan, Simone McCarthy and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday claimed “true democracy” began in Hong Kong 25 years ago when China assumed control, as he marked a symbolic anniversary for the city transformed by his political crackdown. “After its return to the motherland, Hong Kong compatriots became masters of

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea on Friday claimed its Covid-19 outbreak began when two residents touched “unusual things” near the South Korean border, according to state media. The impoverished nation publicly acknowledged the virus had breached its borders for the first time in May, though it’s difficult to assess the real

By Katie Hunt, CNN Giant pandas are notoriously fussy eaters. They only munch on bamboo and each day spend 15 hours eating up to 99 pounds (45 kilograms) of the stuff. But their ancestors, like most bears, ate a much wider diet that included meat, and it was thought that modern pandas’ exclusive diet evolved

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping has left mainland China for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, arriving in Hong Kong Thursday ahead of the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule. Xi is expected to spend two days in the financial hub and attend a

By Jessie Yeung, CNN After more than a year on the surface of Mars, China’s Tianwen-1 probe has taken images covering the entire red planet, the country’s space agency announced Wednesday. Tianwen-1, which means “quest for heavenly truth,” was launched in 2020 and landed on Mars last May, when the Zhurong rover on board started

By Helen Regan, CNN Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was sworn in as the 17th President of the Philippines on Thursday, restoring one of the country’s most notorious political dynasties to the Malacañang Palace 36 years after his father was ousted in a popular uprising. Marcos Jr., known as “Bongbong” in the Philippines, won a landslide in

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN More than 7 million people in Bangladesh are in desperate need of shelter and emergency relief after what one aid agency has described as the worst flooding to hit South Asia in living memory. Hundreds of thousands of homes near the Bangladesh-India border are underwater, and in the worst-hit areas whole

By Heather Chen, Junko Ogura and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN Japan is asking some 37 million people living in and around Tokyo to use less electricity and ration air conditioning even amid a record heat wave that has seen temperatures in some parts of the country pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The government urged

CNN By Jessie Yeung and Marc Stewart, CNN Japan is in talks to open a NATO liaison office, the first of its kind in Asia, the country’s foreign minister told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the world less stable. “We are already in discussions, but no