After fleeing famine in North Korea, Kim Cheol Ok laid low in China for decades -- until a doomed run for freedom got her sent back to her repressive homeland, her family says.

Germany's far-right AfD fought Wednesday to draw a line under Chinese spying allegations, the latest in a slew of scandals to hit the anti-immigration party in a key election year.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Tuesday announced additional funding for Ukraine and pledged to increase Britain's own defence budget, during a visit to the Polish capital Warsaw.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a drill simulating a "nuclear counterattack," state-run KCNA news agency said Tuesday, the latest in a volley of tests by Pyongyang this year.

North Korean animators appear to have worked on upcoming Amazon and Max cartoons, without the knowledge of either US-based Hollywood studio and in violation of sanctions against Pyongyang, a new report has found.

North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the sea off South Korea's east coast, Seoul's military said on Monday, the latest in an apparent volley of tests by Pyongyang this year.

Negotiators from 175 countries are meeting from Tuesday in Canada to nail down a binding global treaty to end plastic pollution with many sticking points to be resolved five months after the last round of talks in Kenya.

CertiK revealed that OFAC-sanctioned Tornado Cash was still used by threat actors in most of the security incidents in crypto in the first three months of the year.

Asian markets rose Thursday with traders mulling the outlook for US interest rates as Federal Reserve officials questioned the need for a cut anytime soon.

Facebook owner Meta and other online platforms must not force users to pay for the right to data protection enshrined in EU law when offering ad-free subscriptions, the European data regulator said Wednesday.

The US ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday she believed sanctions were still an "effective tool" to discourage North Korea and its nuclear development, even as global enforcement of UN sanctions stumbles.

Lockheed Martin has secured a $17 billion contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to develop next-generation interceptors for protecting against intercontinental ballistic missile threats.

The US ambassador to the United Nations visited the heavily-fortified border between North and South Korea Tuesday, urging Pyongyang to return to talks as global enforcement of UN sanctions stumbles.

Under Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore has held its own in an era of globalised finance and cutting-edge tech, while continuing his venerated father's policy of muzzling free media and snuffing out dissent.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's top legislator hailed a "new chapter" of Beijing-Pyongyang relations on Saturday, in one of the most high-level meetings between the allies in years.

China is helping Russia undertake its biggest military expansion since Soviet times, US officials said Friday, stepping up public pressure as concerns rise over Ukraine.

China's top legislator met with a senior North Korean official for talks on cooperation during a visit to Pyongyang this week, North Korean state media said Friday, in one of the most high-level meetings between the allies in years.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised "reform" and the head of his ruling party resigned on Thursday after a disastrous election increased the opposition's stranglehold on parliament.

The big winner in South Korea's election is the country's most controversial politician: opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, whose party is heading towards a landslide win, making the scandal-plagued liberal a real danger to beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol.

US President Joe Biden hosts a lavish state visit for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Wednesday, featuring a major upgrade in defense ties against China -- and music by Paul Simon.

High youth unemployment, feuding politicians and a cost of living crisis: young South Korean voters told AFP what was on their minds as they voted -- some for the first time -- in elections Wednesday.

South Koreans head to the polls Wednesday in parliamentary elections seen as a referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol after a polarising campaign focused largely on resentment, personalities -- and onions.

Online disinformation and hate speech are poisoning politics the world over, but in South Korea there have also been real-life acts of violence in a deeply polarised electorate before polls on Wednesday.

The leaders of Japan and the Philippines head to Washington this week for a first trilateral summit aimed at boosting defence ties, hot on the heels of four-way military drills in the South China Sea that riled Beijing.

South Korea put its second domestically made spy satellite into orbit, Seoul's defence ministry said Monday, after it launched from an American space centre on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

South Korea will vote Wednesday in key legislative elections that will determine control of the country's parliament -- and whether President Yoon Suk Yeol can advance his socially conservative agenda.

From India and South Korea to Croatia and North Macedonia, fact-checking organizations battling an ever-rising tide of misinformation in a major election year are buffeted by legal threats, harassment and funding shortfalls.

China is ramping up use of AI-generated content and fake social media accounts to inflame division in the United States and elsewhere, according to the latest report from Microsoft's threat center.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of a new medium-to-long range solid-fuel hypersonic missile, state media said Wednesday, hailing the "important military strategic value" of the new weapon.

North Korea fired a medium-range ballistic missile on Tuesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a spate of banned weapons tests by Kim Jong Un's regime this year.