Top Asian News 4:30 a.m. GMT

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) — In his first public remarks abroad as U.S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis is criticizing North Korea for provocative acts that require new consultations with Japan and South Korea. Mattis spoke to reporters aboard his military plane Thursday en route to Seoul from Washington. Mattis says he needs to speak with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts during this trip about what new defensive steps might be needed to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. The new Pentagon chief says his Seoul meetings will include discussion of deploying the U.S. missile defense system known as THAAD.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister said his country's relationship with the United States remained "very strong" but refused to comment on a newspaper report on Thursday that an angry President Donald Trump cut short their first telephone call as national leaders. At the heart of the weekend conversation between Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a deal struck with the Obama administration that would allow mostly Muslim refugees rejected by Australia to be resettled in the United States. Turnbull declined to comment on reports in The Washington Post that Trump had described the agreement as "the worst deal ever" and accused Turnbull of seeking to export the "next Boston bombers." The Boston Bombers refer to Tamerlan and Dhozkar Tsarnaev, U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Other than a tweet, President Donald Trump hasn't said how he'll stop North Korea from threatening America with a nuclear weapon. And as his Pentagon chief visits key allies in Asia, neither Trump nor his GOP allies in Congress seem settled on any plan. The fight against the Islamic State group is the new administration's top national security priority, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis chose South Korea and Japan for his first official overseas trip. Departing Wednesday, Mattis will look to reassure the nations on the front line against North Korea. Americans are seeking reassurance, too. Concern has surged on both sides of the Pacific about the North's weapons programs, after leader Kim Jong Un warned in his annual New Year's address that the country is in the final stages of readiness to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially threaten the continental United States.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine governor says more than 100 workers, including three Japanese, have been injured and at least three are missing in a fire that hit a huge factory south of Manila and sent thousands of employees scampering to safety. Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla said Thursday the fire at the House Technology Industries is under control but has not been fully extinguished nearly 18 hours after it started in General Trias town in Cavite province. Remulla says about 10 of the injured are in critical condition, adding some employees jumped from windows to escape the fire at the three-story building where pre-fabricated house parts are manufactured for export to Japan.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that he won't run for South Korea's presidency, a surprise announcement that removes a key figure from the scramble to replace impeached President Park Geun-hye and further stirs the country's already tumultuous politics. The withdrawal of Ban, who had been considered the only major conservative contender, boosts liberal Moon Jae-in, who has enjoyed a comfortable lead in opinion surveys since Park was impeached in December. Ban told a hastily arranged news conference that he had wanted to use his 10 years of experience as U.N. chief to resolve a national crisis and achieve unity.

PUNCAK, Indonesia (AP) — After getting death threats from Al-Shabab militants, Mohamed Dahir Saeed and his wife fled their native Somalia with plans to seek safety in Australia. They arrived in nearby Indonesia, only to be told "the sea is closed" for anyone attempting to make the perilous boat journey south. That was two years ago. Now another chance may be disappearing for Saeed and thousands of other asylum seekers who have made it to this Southeast Asian country with dreams of finding better lives elsewhere. "The majority of people here, the U.S. takes them," Saeed said. "Now the U.S. they say no Somalian, no Iraq, no Syrian, no Iran, no Sudan.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Salespeople at Pyongyang's premier car dealership wait patiently beside racks of glossy brochures in a showroom filled with that unmistakable new car smell from a couple dozen Whistle sedans and Cuckoo SUVs — all bearing the distinctive, double-pigeon logo of Pyonghwa Motors, North Korea's only passenger car company. The streets of Pyongyang are more crowded than ever, but Pyonghwa, whose sole factory just south of the capital was designed to produce as many as 10,000 cars a year, appears to be stuck in neutral. Experts say just about everything its pigeon hood ornaments are attached to these days comes straight from China.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — A six-story tannery building under construction in northern India collapsed on Wednesday, killing at least five workers, injuring 17 and possibly trapping up to 30 others. District administrator Kaushal Raj Sharma said the army and the National Disaster Response Force was clearing the massive rubble and searching for the missing workers. Sharma said the rescuers removed five people alive from the rubble and have also recovered five bodies. He said the operation was continuing through the night. Twelve others were injured while working at the site. Three of injured have been hospitalized, he said. The building came crashing down in Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh state.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In his first report to the new Trump administration, a U.S. watchdog that monitors billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan issued a bleak progress report, saying the Afghan government controls barely half the country, its security forces numbers are on the decline and drug production is on the rise, while eradication is down. The one bright spot, says the report, is a noticeable drop in corruption when procuring goods and services. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has launched a country wide anti-corruption campaign since taking power in 2014 elections, which ended in controversy and the formation of a so-called Unity Government.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — While Afghanistan's Buddhists were carving the giant sandstone statues in Bamiyan in 500 A.D., Buddhists in China were creating martial arts in the Shaolin temple in Henan Province. Fifteen hundred years later, 10 ethnic Hazara women and girls practice the martial arts of Shaolin on a hilltop in the west of Kabul. They are preparing for the day that Afghanistan can send its women's team to the Shaolin world championship in China. Sima Azimi, 20, who is originally from Jaghuri, in central Afghanistan, trains nine students in the martial arts to prepare for Olympic competition, but also to protect themselves on the streets of Kabul, where women are routinely harassed.