Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the commitment by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to dismantle its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri as an important “confidence-building measure” that that will support efforts towards sustainable peace and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the wave of suicide attacks earlier today on worshipers at three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia, the country’s second largest city.
- The head of the United Nations food relief agency said on Friday that many mothers and young children in North Korea are still relying on humanitarian assistance to meet their nutritional needs.
- Late last year, as violent repression in Myanmar sent Rohingyas fleeing to safety in Bangladesh, women from the mainly Muslim minority were subjected to what a United Nations official called “a frenzy of sexual violence”.
- United Nations chief António Guterres has welcomed the Japan-China-South Korea summit held on Wednesday and their effort to cooperate in ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.
- The release of three United States nationals by North Korea is “another important building block” towards peace, said a United Nations human rights expert on Thursday, while urging the release of six South Korean nationals who are still being held.
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated the people of Malaysia on Thursday, following the peaceful holding of national and provincial elections, and praised voters for their “strong commitment” to the democratic process.
- Afghanistan has suffered “a disturbing pattern” of attacks on voter registration facilities since the process began last month, which add up to an “assault on democracy”, the United Nations mission there said Thursday.
- Renewed efforts are underway in Bangladesh to protect nearly one million Myanmar refugees from cholera, amid a warning from the UN health agency on Tuesday that “we’re not out of the woods yet”.
- Economies in the Asia-Pacific region registered robust growth in 2017 and prospects for this year look promising, the United Nations development arm in the region said, urging countries to take advantage of positive conditions and address underlying vulnerabilities.
- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned an attack on a mosque being used as a voter registration centre in Afghanistan’s Khost province and underscored his support to the country as it prepares for elections later this year.
- The dangers of working as a journalist in Afghanistan have been dramatically underlined by an attack in the capital Kabul on Monday in which nine Afghan photographers and reporters were killed. They had gone to report on a suicide attack, and were targeted by a second suicide bomber when they arrived on the scene.
- Secretary-General António Guterres has said that the United Nations stands ready to discuss “possible forms of support” to further inter-Korean talks over denuclearizing the Peninsula, and working towards a lasting peace.