Simon Denyer

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a congratulatory message to Cambodia’s king on the 67th anniversary of his country’s independence. But Kim’s state media has made no mention of the U.S. elections this past week, focusing instead Monday…

TOKYO — It is one of the many mysteries of the coronavirus pandemic: Why has the death toll from covid-19 apparently been lower in Asia than in Western Europe and North America? Even allowing for different testing policies and counting methods, and…

Laboratory studies are underway to see how temperature and humidity affect covid-19 The novel coronavirus pandemic that has killed thousands, sickened more than 350,000 and sent major economies into a tailspin may be slowed by the upcoming changing…

There are some indications that the incubation period for the coronavirus could be longer than 14 days, with patients testing positive after much longer quarantine periods, researchers said. The rush to understand the virus came as infections rose in…

YOKOHAMA, Japan — U.S. officials on Saturday set in motion plans to evacuate Americans under lockdown aboard the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in the Japanese port of Yokohama. But some passengers greeted the news with…

The State Department heightened its travel advisory for China on Thursday, urging citizens not to travel there due to the rapid spread of coronavirus. The announcement came hours after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a “public…

BEIJING — A top U.S. health official said Tuesday that he offered to send a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to China to help with the coronavirus outbreak. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar did not describe…

BEIJING — As officials grow increasingly fearful about their ability to contain the fast-spreading outbreak of a novel coronavirus, this metropolis recorded its first death on Monday, hundreds of foreign nationals prepared to flee the country, and…

SEOUL — For decades, there was a state-approved path out of North Korea: jobs abroad for selected workers to raise money for the regime and have a rare opportunity to boost the lives of their families back home. Tens of thousands of North Koreans…

HANOI – As he boarded his train for the long journey home on Saturday, Kim Jong Un grinned, waved and clasped his hands above his head like a boxer celebrating victory. North Korean state media has already proclaimed his summit meeting with President…

VAN TAN, Vietnam — In a grove of trees outside this village north of Hanoi, a small memorial serves as a reminder of the era when North Korea and North Vietnam stood together against “American aggression,” as the war was known here. Fourteen…

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood before African leaders in Nairobi two years ago and outlined his vision for a vast stretch of the globe — from the Pacific to the Indian oceans — united by trade and a common political worldview. It…

TAIPEI, Taiwan — On the face of it, he’s an unlikely champion for Asian democracy. A longhaired rocker with a gothic taste in myths and legends, he sings in a rasping scream, backed by fast-paced riffs and frenzied drumming, his face decorated in…

Tens of thousands of foreign women are flocking to China for marriage, pushed by poverty at home and sucked in by China’s shortage of women. Chinese men surf websites that offer foreign brides, and may wind up paying upwards of $8,000 for marriage…

Li Chunke began carving ivory after leaving school as a 15-year-old boy. Today, at 68, this master craftsman is working until the early hours of every morning, trying to finish a 20-inch statuette of Buddha on an unforgiving deadline — before China…

BEIJING — When President Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in January, critics said he was leaving a vacuum at the heart of the Asia-Pacific region, ceding the United States’ role as regional economic leader. On Sunday,…

For China’s President Xi Jinping, the recently concluded summit of G-20 leaders was a resounding success, a chance to strut his stuff on the world stage and underline his nation’s ever-growing global leadership. China arrested five citizen…

BEIJING — The latest was Kenya. Before that: Lesotho, Vanuatu and Afghanistan. The list of countries backing Beijing’s stance in the South China Sea just keeps growing — China’s Foreign Ministry boasted last week that nearly 60 had swung behind the…

This video is currently not available China has laid claim to a number of islands in the South China Sea, building airbases on tiny spits of land while installing radar and missile launchers. (Jason Aldag, Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post /…