at 18:30 (JST), February 17

Asian View

"Asian View" is a five-minute news segment broadcast by NHK WORLD-JAPAN. It features the latest news and deep analysis from Japan and the rest of Asia. Listen to "Asian View" and get the latest information from a region that's playing an increasingly important role in the world.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20230217183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : taiwan suspected
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230217_01/

Taiwan's military says it has found the wreckage of a suspected Chinese weather balloon on a remote island effectively controlled by Taiwan.

Army officials say its forces on Dongyin Island saw an unidentified object falling from the sky and discovered remnants of a balloon at a shooting range late Thursday morning. The island is close to China's southeastern coastal province of Fujian.

The army says the sphere is about 1 meter in diameter, with an instrument box bearing the simplified Chinese characters for "meteorological instrument" and the name of a company. China mainly uses simplified Chinese letters, while Taiwan uses traditional characters.

The army says an initial investigation concluded that the remains are of a weather balloon. It says relevant departments will conduct a further analysis.

The army says it will not release photographs or any other information while the analysis is underway.

Balloons had been spotted in and near Taiwan before the incident.

Taiwan's defense ministry says none of them has posed a security threat. It says if a balloon is found to be a major threat, the military will take action, such as shooting it down.

Key words : south refer enemy
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230216_28/

A South Korean defense white paper has referred to North Korea and its military as the country's "enemy" for the first time in six years.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office last May, has been taking a tough stance against North Korea, which is accelerating its nuclear and missile development.

The biennial document released on Thursday says North Korea possesses a little over 70 kilograms of plutonium. This is 20 kilograms more than the estimated amount listed in the previous white paper published two years ago.

It says North Korea also possesses a considerable amount of highly enriched uranium.

The white paper says the North defines South Korea as an "undoubted enemy" and Pyongyang continues to pose a military threat without renouncing its nuclear program. It says that as the executor of the threat, the North Korean regime and military are the country's enemy.

Defense white papers published under Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in, did not refer to North Korea as an enemy.

The new white paper calls Japan a close neighboring country that shares values with South Korea. It says Japan and South Korea should build future cooperative relations that meet common interests.

Regarding Dokdo, known as the Takeshima Islands in Japan, the paper says South Korea will resolutely and strictly deal with Japan's claims of sovereignty. South Korea controls the islands. Japan claims them.

Key words : bird flu unprecedented
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230216_25/

Japan's agriculture ministry says bird flu is spreading at an unprecedented rate across the country this season, hitting new highs in terms of both the number of outbreaks and the scale of birds culled.

The ministry says 76 outbreaks have been confirmed at poultry firms and elsewhere in 25 prefectures since the first cases were reported in October last year. Nearly 15 million birds have been culled so far.

The October outbreaks, in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, and Atsuma Town in Hokkaido, were the earliest on record to be confirmed in a season.

The flu virus is carried by migratory birds wintering in Japan. The flu usually breaks out from autumn to spring, but infected birds are said to have arrived earlier than usual this season.

The ministry warns that risks are increasing throughout in Japan. This season, the avian flu spread in six prefectures that had never seen outbreaks before, such as Yamagata and Okinawa.

The number of birds destroyed rose as the disease hit large chicken firms, including one in Misawa City, Aomori Prefecture. About 1.39 million birds were culled there in December.

Ministry figures show that the number of culled birds now stands at 14.78 million, about 50 percent more than the 9.87 million recorded in the 2020-21season.

Key words : more than 2,000 ukrainian fled
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