Top Asian News 4:43 a.m. GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to broker a deal to coax the North to give up its nuclear weapons, the White House announced Friday. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said "it's high time" for serious negotiations between the United States and North Korea to outline a roadmap for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The U.N. chief told a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday that a roadmap would allow both sides "to know exactly what the next steps will be, and to have predictability in the way negotiations take place."

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's public safety minister said Friday that the country won't be deterred by Chinese pressure after China threatened reprisals if Huawei was banned from supplying equipment for 5G networks, highlighting the growing rift between America's neighbor and the emerging superpower. There are accusations that the telecom giant is controlled by China's ruling Communist Party or is required to facilitate Chinese spying. The U.S., Australia, Japan and other governments have imposed curbs on use of its technology. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Canada has been abundantly clear it will not compromise national security. "It's a difficult challenge but we'll not be deterred by what we believe to be right and what we believe to be in the interests of Canada," Goodale said.

TOKYO (AP) — Trade ministers of a Pacific Rim trade bloc are meeting in Tokyo, gearing up to roll out and expand the market-opening initiative. The Pacific Rim free trade agreement, rejected by President Donald Trump after he took office in 2017, took effect at the end of last year after Australia became the sixth nation to ratify it. So far, seven of the 11 member countries have done so, and others are expected to follow through soon. The trade officials are expected to discuss expanding the bloc at the meeting Saturday in Japan's capital. Known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, it aims to streamline trade and slash tariffs to facilitate more business among member nations with a combined population of nearly 500 million people and GDP of $13.5 trillion.

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's military announced Friday that the Arakan Army, a Buddhist rebel group in Rakhine state, has been classified a terrorist organization after mounting a flurry of recent attacks. The state earlier was the site of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the Muslim Rohingya minority, causing more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Military officers said at a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that leader Aung San Suu Kyi ordered security forces to launch the offensive against the Arakan Army. The insurgent group, which seeks autonomy from the central government, killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in attacks on Jan.

BEIJING (AP) — Yu Mingang had a good job helping Chinese manufacturers prepare to sell shares to the public until the cooling economy derailed those plans. As demand for auditing services sank, the 25-year-old accountant in the eastern city of Hangzhou was laid off in December. Yu tightened his belt: No more movies or eating out. He put off buying a computer. "I pay rent out of my savings," Yu said. The downturn is squeezing urban workers and entrepreneurs the ruling Communist Party is counting on to help transform China from a low-wage factory into a prosperous consumer market. Headline economic numbers still look healthy.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The ailing 80-year-old radical cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other violent extremists in Indonesia will be released from prison, Indonesia's president said Friday, slashing a 15-year sentence. The announcement of Abu Bakar Bashir's imminent release came during campaigning for a presidential election due in April in which opponents of President Joko Widodo have tried to discredit him as insufficiently Islamic. "I have considered this decision for a long time, involving the National Police chief and legal experts," Widodo told reporters. "This release was decided because of humanitarian considerations and also related to his health care." The 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian tourist island of Bali by al-Qaida-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah militants killed 202 people, many of them foreigners including dozens of Australians.

TORONTO (AP) — China's ambassador to Canada warned the Canadian government Thursday to stop recruiting international support in its feud with China and threatened retaliation if Canada bans Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei for security reasons. Ambassador Lu Shaye said last month's arrest of a top Huawei Technologies executive was an act of "backstabbing" by a friend and he warned of repercussions if Canada bars the firm from its new 5G network. He said it would be a bad idea for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to use next week's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to press for support against China.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Belarusian model who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was arrested immediately upon her arrival in Moscow on Thursday following deportation from Thailand. Moscow police said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Anastasia Vashukevich was detained in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on charges of inducement to prostitution along with three people deported alongside her. Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February last year, was given a suspended sentenced on Tuesday and ordered to be deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy along with several co-defendants in a case related to holding a sex training seminar in Thailand.

MADURAI, India (AP) — As drums beat and the crowd cheers, a man leaps onto the back of a large bull and hangs tightly to its hump as the animal bucks and jumps. If he can hold on to the bull for three jumps or for 30 seconds or for a distance of 15 meters (49 feet) he'll have a chance at winning prizes handed out by sponsors such as cooking pots, clothes, bicycles, motorbikes or even a car. He's just one of the hundreds of bull vaulters who are competing in a Jallikattu festival in southern India. Taking place in amid a carnival-like atmosphere, the events are part rodeo and part running of the bulls and are held across India's Tamil Nadu state during the four-day Pongal, or winter harvest festival.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's military held its annual Armed Forces Day parade on Friday as the country prepares for expected elections more than four years after soldiers overthrew an elected government. Army Commander in Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, who presided over the ceremony, declined last October to rule out future army interventions in Thai political life, raising a storm of controversy. But his speech to soldiers on Friday steered clear of politics, making instead routine exhortations of loyalty to the king and the country. "We will sacrifice our physical and mental strength to protect the country and revere the king, and look after the people," he said.