A South Korean is sentenced for espionage, the Philippine Vice President is arrested, and soldiers are killed in Pakistan

A Seoul court has sentenced a South Korean man to five years in prison on charges of spying for North Korea, officials said on Saturday.

The court found that the 43-year-old man, whose identity was withheld, received an order from a North Korean agent via the Telegram messaging app in May and June of 2021 to collect information about anti-Pyongyang defectors from North Korea and their activities.

Around that time, the man obtained about 660 million won ($479,346) of virtual currency from a North Korean client as money to operate investments in cryptocurrency, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Later, he contacted the head of a North Korean defector group and offered to sponsor the organization. He asked the leader to create a virtual currency wallet and send its address to the North Korean agent.

After the customer transferred 1 million won worth of Bitcoin in the name of the donation, the man received videos and photos showing the group sending anti-Pyongyang posts in return.

A Philippine court issued an arrest warrant for Sarah Duterte, the country's vice president, today (Friday), on charges that she threatened to assassinate the president and two other people.

The House of Representatives actually impeached Duterte last May over the same charges and alleged financial irregularities, according to what the Associated Press reported.

A conviction would hamper Duterte's plans to run in presidential elections scheduled for 2028, when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s six-year term ends.

The vice president's lawyer, who denied the accusations, indicated that she will post bail to avoid detention, while she faces trial before the Quezon City Provincial Court.

“She has no intention of evading the law, and will continue to pursue all available means,” her lawyer, Paul Lawrence Lim, said in a statement, without further details.

The accusations come against the backdrop of a threat made by Duterte, during an online press conference in 2024, to Marcos, his wife, and then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Martin Romualdez, that she had hired an assassin who would assassinate them if she was killed, while political disputes between them escalated.

The Vice President pointed out that her threat was not a joke. But she later said that her threat to Marcos was only to express her fear for her safety.

It is noteworthy that the Vice President is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos' predecessor.

Intelligence sources said on Friday that gunmen ambushed a Pakistani military convoy in the troubled Balochistan province, southwest of the country, killing at least 16 soldiers.

The convoy was traveling in the town of Ziart, near the provincial capital, Quetta, when it was attacked during the night, two intelligence sources told the German News Agency.

One source said that at least 11 militants were killed in the clash that followed the attack.

In a separate operation, Pakistani soldiers carried out an operation in the town of Qalat in Balochistan province, resulting in the killing of at least 12 militants.

The Balochistan Liberation Army, a nationalist armed group demanding the independence of Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack on the soldiers.

Armed groups, including the Pakistani Taliban and the Balochistan Liberation Army, regularly launch attacks on the army and police in the troubled province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Much of the violence is seen as a response to massive Chinese investment in the region, where China, an ally of Pakistan, has built a deep sea port in Balochistan and a network of roads to reach the Middle East, Africa, Europe and beyond.