Top Asian News 2:56 a.m. GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's just-ousted president said Tuesday she was "sorry" to the people as she underwent questioning by prosecutors over a corruption scandal that led to her removal from office. The questioning of Park Geun-hye came 11 days after the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously to dismiss her as president over allegations she colluded with a confidante to extort money from businesses and committed other wrongdoings. Her power had been suspended since she was impeached by parliament in December. It was a dramatic fall for Park, a daughter of slain dictator Park Chung-hee, who was elected as the country's first female president in late 2012 amid a wave of support from conservatives who remembered her father as a hero who pulled the country up from poverty despite his suppression of civil rights.

TOKYO (AP) — North Korea said Monday it is not frightened by U.S. threats of possible pre-emptive military action to halt its nuclear and missile buildup. A spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry slammed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent talk of tougher sanctions, more pressure, and possible military action, and said the North would not be deterred in its nuclear program. "The nuclear force of (North Korea) is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

BEIJING (AP) — China's trading partners are bringing the top U.N. food standards official to Beijing in a last-ditch attempt to persuade regulators to scale back plans to require intensive inspections of food imports — including such low-risk items as wine and chocolate — that Washington and Europe say could disrupt billions of dollars in commerce. The rule could inflame tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has promised to raise tariffs on imports from China, and the European Union. Under the rule, due to take effect as early as October, each consignment of food would require a certificate from a foreign inspector confirming it meets Chinese quality standards.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan and Russia agreed Monday to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial dispute through cooperation in a range of areas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, also joined in urging North Korea to refrain from "provocative actions" and to abide by United Nations resolutions demanding an end to its nuclear and missile testing. The call came in "two-plus-two" talks among foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo that touched on a wide array of issues, including the conflict in Syria, drug trafficking, and logistics for travel by elderly Japanese back to disputed islands that have been under Russian control since the end of World War II.

BEIJING (AP) — Israel wants to boost cooperation with China in technology, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told China's premier Monday, as he led a large business delegation on a visit to Beijing to promote commercial ties with the Asian giant. Netanyahu said in opening remarks at a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that Israel and China could explore "many ways of technological cooperation." Earlier Monday, Netanyahu told a meeting of more than 600 Israeli and Chinese businesspeople that Israel is well-positioned to help China upgrade its products, services and utilities with better technology. "I think that there is an extraordinary capacity for China to assume its rightful place, as it's doing, on the world stage," Netanyahu said.

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A passenger plane crash-landed and burned in Wau, northwestern South Sudan on Monday, but all 49 passengers and crew survived, an airport official. The plane was landing but then crashed, said Wau's Acting Airport Manager Stephen Youngule. "The plane touched down and then jumped up again. The pilot couldn't control it," said Youngule, who is also Deputy Director of Air Traffic Services. "I saw it until the very last moment before the fire engulfed the aircraft." When the plane crashed, its door flew open, which allowed the pilot and rescue crews to get everybody out, he said.

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor voted for a new president Monday in an election that will test Asia's newest and poorest nation. Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, a former guerrilla leader from the leftist Fretilin party, was up against seven other candidates. He and the Democratic Party's Antonio da Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs, were the front-runners. While East Timor's president has a mostly ceremonial role, the prime minister heads the government. Guterres, 62, lost to current President Taur Matan Ruak in the 2012 presidential election. But in Monday's election, he had strong support from former Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, a resistance leader who remains influential in politics.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — An investigating team formed by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited two makeshift camps in southern Bangladesh on Monday and questioned some of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled from Myanmar, alleging mistreatment by soldiers and majority Buddhists. The Rohingya refused to show their faces to the 10 visiting investigators, fearing reprisals when they return home, said magistrate Imrul Kayes, who accompanied the team. He said the men and women talked from behind a curtain and gave accounts of horrors they faced, including the raping of women, killing of children and burning of villages.

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Regional politics makes for strange bedfellows, and at first glance, it is hard to imagine more of an odd couple than tempestuous Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his cerebral de facto Myanmar counterpart, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who met Monday in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw. After his arrival in Myanmar on Sunday, Duterte rejected European criticism of his deadly war on drugs with his usual profanity, insisting that "more people will die." "I said I will not stop," he declared. "I will continue until the last drug lord in the Philippines is killed and the pushers out of the streets." Suu Kyi has just as little time for critics, but her crisp Oxford-accented speech is more like a dagger to her guest's blunderbuss.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. security officers have begun fingerprinting refugees held on Pacific islands in the final stage of assessing who will find new lives in the United States, asylum seekers said Monday. Department of Homeland Security officers are taking biometric details from refugees on Nauru, including fingerprints, heights and weights, according to a document circulated among asylum seekers and provided to AP by Mehdi, a refugee on the island nation who for security reasons did not want his family name published. U.S. officials began scheduling appointments with asylum seeker families on Nauru from Monday, Mehdi said. If refugees pass the initial fingerprint security screening, they will have face-to-face interviews with Homeland Security officers in Nauru or Papua New Guinea, the document said.