Top Asian News 3:03 a.m. GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Nauru's president said Thursday that Australia's controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to his Pacific island nation was "working well," as he met with the Australian prime minister amid questions over the fate of hundreds of refugees languishing at Nauru's Australian-run detention camp. The meeting in Sydney between President Baron Waqa and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull follows fresh scrutiny of Australia's asylum-seeker policy sparked by a resettlement deal between Australia and the U.S. Australia refuses to settle any asylum seekers who try to arrive by boat, insisting the tough policy is necessary to dissuade migrants from attempting the dangerous ocean crossing from Indonesia.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — People used jet boats and tractors to help rescue about 2,000 residents of a New Zealand town after a river burst through a concrete levee Thursday, flooding hundreds of homes and businesses. Local authorities declared a state of emergency after the levee failed in the town of Edgecumbe on the North Island. New Zealand has been drenched in recent days by the remnants of Cyclone Debbie, which flooded parts of Australia's east coast last week. Tony Bonne, the mayor of the Whakatane District Council, said the water was more than 1 meter (3.3 feet) deep in some homes and that one nearby river had reached an all-time record height.

HONG KONG (AP) — Asia's developing economies will see steady growth this year and the next, though the evolving policies of President Donald Trump's administration are a major uncertainty, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Thursday. The Manila, Philippines-based lender forecast growth in developing Asia at 5.7 percent in 2017 — unchanged from its previous forecast — and said that pace would continue into 2018. It said 30 of the 45 countries covered in the report will see sustained growth that will help offset the gradual slowdown in China, Asia's biggest economy. However, the risks include unexpected changes to U.S.

SEOSAN, South Korea (AP) — Chung Young-chul takes a drag on his cigarette and watches as wild ducks fly across rice fields and land on a reservoir in this remote farming village. He's among nearly 2,000 people — ex-gangsters, ex-convicts, former prostitutes, orphans — who were once held here, forced to work without pay for years and are now largely forgotten. "Some died after they were beaten and got sick. Others died of malnutrition or in accidents," said Chung, 74. "It was worse than a prison camp ... We were starving slaves." They were victims of social engineering orchestrated in the 1960s by dictator Park Chung-hee, late father of just-ousted President Park Geun-hye.

LONDON (AP) — An heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune has refused to answer questions about whether he will return to Thailand this month to meet with prosecutors over an alleged hit-and-run that killed a police officer almost five years ago. Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya was silent Wednesday as The Associated Press asked about his plans. Standing outside a residence in an exclusive London neighborhood, he didn't say why he was in Britain or whether he would meet with prosecutors in Thailand April 27. Vorayuth, who is in his early 30s, fled the scene of the 2012 accident in his Ferrari after allegedly hitting the police officer, who was on motorcycle patrol.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean missile test ended in failure Wednesday when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean in a fiery crash, a senior U.S. defense official said. The launch came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week, raising speculation that it might have been timed to get their attention. The extended-range Scud missile suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to U.S. imagery and assessments, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the launch publicly.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea rarely misses an opportunity to conduct banned missile tests to coincide with high-profile world events at which the impoverished yet nuclear-armed country is likely to be discussed. On Wednesday, it fired a missile a day before the first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Did North Korea really want to steal the show ahead of the Trump-Xi summit? Or was the launch just part of its broader missile development programs, with outsiders reading too much into a routine weapons test? What you should know about North Korea's latest missile test: ___ DUAL PURPOSES?

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The response of America's chief diplomat to North Korea's latest missile launch was an abrupt departure from the usual — which may be a turning point, analysts in Asia say. The statement from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson totaled 23 words: "North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment." While Tillerson's statement was unusually short and vague, experts in South Korea and Japan saw it as a sign of consistency on how the United States under President Donald Trump will deal with North Korea as it speeds up its nuclear weapon and missile developments.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says "the United States has spoken enough about North Korea" in reaction to North Korea's latest missile launch. The State Department issued a terse statement from America's top diplomat acknowledging "yet another" launch and saying "We have no further comment." U.S. and South Korean officials said earlier that North Korea fired a ballistic missile into its eastern waters Wednesday. The launch came amid worries that the North might conduct banned nuclear or rocket tests ahead of the first summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Results of an independent poll released Wednesday showed a drop in the number of Filipinos who trust President Rodrigo Duterte, although he was still considered trustworthy by three-quarters of the respondents despite an impeachment complaint pending against him. Results released by Pulse Asia Research Inc. showed that 76 percent of the 1,200 respondents expressed trust in Duterte, down 7 percentage points from December. Some 78 percent of respondents approved of his performance, down from 83 percent. The nationwide survey was conducted March 15-20 — around the time a lawmaker filed an impeachment complaint against Duterte because of alleged corruption and the thousands of deaths in the president's anti-drug crackdown.