Asian Legal Review

For about as long as North Korea has existed, Kim Pyong-il has been considered a possible successor to the leader. And now, with his nephew Kim Jong-un’s health status unclear, his name is being bandied about again.Kim Pyong-il, 65, is the last known surviving son of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung. After losing out in the 1970s to his half-brother, Kim Jong-il – who ended up running the country from 1994 to 2011 – Kim Pyong-il spent about four decades overseas in diplomatic posts including…

Singapore has reported a further 528 Covid-19 infections to bring its total to 14,951, with authorities saying the true number may be even higher as not all sick migrant workers are being tested.The country’s director of medical services, Kenneth Mak, on Tuesday said the figures would “catch up” as further testing of the workers took place. However, he said this was not because the government was “fudging or dodging” cases, but because it was prioritising isolating infected workers over testing…

More than 2,200 Indonesians have died with acute symptoms of Covid-19 but were not recorded as victims of the disease, a Reuters review of data from 16 of the country’s 34 provinces showed.Three medical experts said the figures indicated the national death toll was likely to be much higher than the official figure of 765.Indonesia has one of the lowest testing rates in the world and some epidemiologists say that has made it harder to get an accurate picture of the extent of infections in the…

For Chanapan Kaewklachaiyawut, a Bangkok-based tour operator who caters to Chinese visitors, the news that Thailand on Monday extended its state of emergency until May 31 came as no surprise. After almost 30 years in the industry, the Covid-19 pandemic has left him unable to speculate about the future – either of his own business, or the country’s tourism sector.“I cannot say when my business can return. We cannot look at just China, and China doesn’t only look at Thailand. I cannot even guess…

Australia launched mobile-phone software to help trace people infected with the coronavirus as parts of the country start to loosen restrictions on movement.The COVIDSafe app records digital handshakes between smartphones via Bluetooth, and if someone catches the virus, health authorities will be able to track who has been within 1.5 metres of the person for 15 minutes or more. More than 1.1 million people have signed up since its launch on Sunday, the government said.Prime Minister Scott…

Bent over a wooden table, Albert Tay, 61, picks up a plastic knife – the kind that comes with a McDonald’s takeaway order – and gets to work.His hands run down a winding log of reddish-brown clay that is shaped like a dragon without features. Using the knife, he deftly carves out small, protruding scales, one after another, until they eventually form a dense pattern across the dragon’s body, which dresses up a 2-metre-long joss stick.With more twists and flicks of the wrist, he works on the…

In just a matter of days, Jimwel Himor has gone from waiting tables for a catering company in Metro Manila to waiting in line at the supermarket as he does other people’s shopping. “It’s a good gig and helps me get the money I need,” said the sole breadwinner for his family. “At least while I don’t have regular work.” Himor is one of the thousands of Filipinos who recently signed up as a personal assistant on MyKuya, an on-demand services app based in Manila, after being furloughed by his…

Every lockdown looks roughly the same from afar – the images of empty streets, grocery queues, ventilated patients and hazmat-suited health care workers have become familiar to all. But the actual experience of confinement is probably very different depending on which city and country we are in. Here in Singapore, the increasingly severe lockdown feels strange in many ways, as if we are in a dream: surreal. First is the term “circuit breaker” used for the lockdown introduced by the Singapore…

A month at home in isolation may seem like an eternity for those unaccustomed to a lack of person-to-person contact, but the experiences of Japan’s large numbers of hikikomori or social recluses, may offer some hints on how to stay sane during the coronavirus pandemic.Japan’s health ministry defines hikikomori as people who have remained isolated at home for at least six consecutive months, not going to school or work and not interacting with people outside their family.According to government…

For many Singaporeans, the prime minister’s wife Ho Ching and her prolific Facebook persona are one and the same.Once described as firmly publicity shy, Ho – the long-time head of Temasek Holdings, the island nation’s sovereign investment firm – has become one of the most closely watched personalities on social media in the city state.A recent This Week in Asia examination of data compiled by social-media tracking platform CrowdTangle showed the scale of her presence on Facebook, where her…