Pompeo, who is in Singapore for Asean-related meetings this week, said: “As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the US is excited to announce US$300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region.”

This new security assistance will advance shared priorities, he said, particularly in maritime security, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and countering transnational threats.

“Throughout my Asean engagement I’ve conveyed President Trump’s commitment to this vital part of the role that continues to grow in importance,” he said at a press conference.

Mr Pompeo had earlier said the US$113 million investment for technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives was “a downpayment on a new era of US economic commitment to the region”.

Part of this US$113 million includes US$10 million in funding to support economic programming, much of which will fall under the US-Asean Connect programme.

Addressing this initiative again at the press conference on Saturday, he said: “Economically, President Trump recognises the long-term strategic importance of one of the world’s most competitive regions. The Indo-Pacific has been and will be a major engine of economic growth.”

The US “seeks partnership, not dominance”, he said as he made the case for US businesses’ engagement in the region being crucial to America’s mission of peace, stability and prosperity.

The Trump administration is working with Congress to encourage the passage of a Bill, in the US Senate, that will more than double the US government’s development finance capacity to US$60 billion to support US prime investment strategic opportunities abroad.

“These initiatives are strategic investments designed to spur our partners’ engagement with American companies, the greatest force for prosperity in the world,” said Mr Pompeo.

Turning to security challenges and regional issues, Mr Pompeo said he had pressed his Asean counterparts to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve denuclearisaton.

He also raised concerns about the Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea and the importance of a rules-based order in the region, and discussed advancing cooperation on cybersecurity and counter-terrorism, including addressing the threat of terrorist fighters returning to the region.

The US also “addressed important steps to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine state”, while it supported Myanmar’s ongoing democratisation transition, said Mr Pompeo.

“The progress of these and other critical security issues is essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific. Asean will remain at the centre of this effort,” he said.

“Regarding the issue of good governance, we regret the election in Cambodia were neither free nor fair. The Cambodian people deserve better,” he said.

But precisely what Asean centrality would mean in practice, Mr Pompeo said in response to a question later, “will be up to each of the Asean countries, to see how they will choose to participate”.

The two senior diplomats met on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related meetings in Singapore amid widespread concern over bilateral trade friction.

Wang told reporters after their meeting that Pompeo agreed with China’s stance that issues of common concerns could be addressed through talks on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Pompeo also told Wang that he did not expect such friction to continue, Wang added.

During their talks, Wang noted that China-US ties are at a crucial point.

China has always believed that cooperation is the only right choice for China and the US and also meets the common expectation of the international community, Wang said.

The two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the world’s two largest economies, and the direction of Sino-US relations is related to the wellbeing of the peoples of both countries and the world, Wang said.

The two sides should work on the basis of mutual respect and equality, conduct dialogue and consultation to manage and control their differences, solve problems and navigate the development of Sino-US relations to move forward on the right track, Wang said.

At the meeting, Pompeo said US-China ties are very important. He also said the US hopes both countries will achieve success, and the US has no intention of hindering China’s development.

The US will continue to adhere to the one-China policy, he said.

The two sides should continue to make joint efforts to strengthen communication and cooperation on issues including the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Pompeo added.

On Friday, Wang also met with foreign ministers of other countries in the region, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In a meeting with DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yongho, Wang said China endorses the DPRK’s taking a slew of measures recently to promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to improve DPRK-US ties.

China hopes the DPRK will stay committed to the right direction and that the US will value the DPRK’s legitimate concerns and meet the DPRK halfway, he said.

On China-DPRK ties, Wang said China is ready to boost strategic communication, steadily advance pragmatic cooperation and offer help within its capacity for the DPRK’s economic and livelihood development.

“We have set up a committee to deal with this investigation. I think we are ready to perform our duty,” the Ministry’s Office Head, Dr Daovong Phonekeo, said on Thursday.

The committee would also invite countries whose companies were registered as shareholders in the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower plant to carry out an intensive investigation including in situ checks and other methodologies as decided by the team of experts to determine the true cause of the tragedy. The World Bank and other internationally recognised independent experts would also take part in the investigation.

The Prime Minister pledged to carry out an investigation into the real cause of the collapse, to determine whether heavy rainfall or the technical standards applied to the construction of the dam was to blame.

“The Ad Hoc Committee will assess the losses and find out the true causes,” he said.

While the investigation is not concluded, the committee will work with the project developers and other disaster relief agencies to seek common ground on the distribution of responsibilities in handling the tragic disaster effectively.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines and the fact-finding teams agreed with the government’s guidelines for the investigation, to ensure the findings were correct, objective and just for all parties concerned.

Regarding compensation, Dr Daovong said the government had a clear policy to provide the best compensation package to those who had been affected by the flood, adding that the government and dam developers would do their best to make sure the compensation awarded was fair to those who had suffered losses.

Minister of Energy and Mines Dr Khammany Inthirath said at a press conference on July 26 that a primary mission of the government, project developers and related agencies following emergency rescue and relief would be to concentrate on the recovery of the livelihoods of the disaster-affected people.

He said the rehabilitation mission would be divided into two phases. The first short-term phase would focus on the rescue of the flood victims and provide emergency relief, while the long-term phase would deal with the reconstruction of resettlement villages, which includes the provision of accommodation and access to land so that people can earn a living.

A dam builder company official told Vientiane Times the company had made a commitment to support the government to shoulder the required work to rehabilitate damaged public facilities in the impacted area as well as to work on the restoration of the well-being of the affected villagers.

Since the flood occurred, the company has been actively providing assistance to the victims in terms of rescue and disaster relief.

The company is building temporary shelters in Attapeu province to house the affected families.

But in Khammuan it is the Xebangfai River that has overflowed and flooded many areas, having risen above the danger level by almost 3 metres.

According to a recent report from Champassak province, 5,522 houses in 218 villages are flooded and 4,621 families are affected.

Meanwhile, over 6,345 hectares of rice fields, over 405 hectares of farmland and almost one hectare of fishponds have been damaged.

In the city of Pakxe, 24 villages have reported flooding, with 1,026 families of 4,555 people in 685 houses affected. A total of 173 families have moved to temporary accommodation in schools, temples, and relatives’ houses.

The authorities are now gathering information on the extent of the damage.

A report issued on August 2 in Khammuan province noted that 378 villages in 10 districts had been flooded and 30,229 families were affected. Authorities have helped to move hundreds of villagers to higher ground.

The swollen Xebangfai and other rivers have flooded 129 irrigation systems, over 35 hectares of rice fields, 604 hectares of farmland and 205 fishponds, while 34 buffaloes, 113 cattle, 79 goats, 83 pigs and 2,635 poultry have been lost.

The floodwater has also entered 17 temples, 101 schools, 13 dispensaries, 1,536 bore holes, and 2,221 toilets.

In Thakhaek district yesterday the level of the Mekong was measured at 13.44 metres, close to the danger level of 14 metres.

Meanwhile, the Xebangfai River rose to 17.37 metres in Mahaxay district, well above the danger level of 15 metres.

But the suffering in these two provinces cannot compare to the disaster playing out in Attapeu, after an auxiliary dam collapsed at the under-construction Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower plant in Sanamxay district on July 23.

Government officials, together with Lao and foreign partners and rescue teams from abroad are desperately searching for the 108 people still unaccounted for.

According to a report from the province on August 2, a total of 23 people were reported to have died and there are grave fears for the safety of those who are missing.

SK Engineering & Construction said Friday that it had restored an 8-kilometer road near where a dam collapsed in Laos last month, speeding up recovery work.

The recovery of the road is part of the South Korean builder’s immediate rescue operation efforts to mend the situation for villagers in Attapeu, the company said in a statement.

The hydroelectric dam in Laos that collapsed last week was built by a joint venture involving SK E&C, the building arm under SK Group. Construction of the dam began in November 2013 and was to be completed by February 2019.

The dam collapse claimed at least 27 lives and an unconfirmed number of people remain missing. It flooded several nearby villages, displacing more than 7,000 people.

SK E&C has dispatched nearly 200 rescue operators and executives to provide medical equipment and relief goods including daily necessities, clothing and sanitation items worth 2 billion won ($1.77 million). It also built temporary shelters for some 7,000 flood victims who were forced to flee their homes.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won last week delivered $10 million in relief funds for victims.

“Asean also supports every channel of dialogue between the US and DPRK,” the Southeast Asian source added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated in his opening remarks to the meeting that the US wanted Asean’s support against Pyongyang.

The call to continually suppress North Korea is ongoing although Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un shook hands in Singapore in June.

The sanctions continued while the joint statement penned by Trump and Kim, promising denuclearisation of the peninsula, is criticised for being historic yet insufficiently progressive.

Asean has always abided by international consensus, particularly the United Nations Security Council resolutions, to address the North Korean issue.

Some of the Asean countries, including Thailand, still maintaining diplomatic relations with North Korea while also facing pressure from the US to cut bilateral ties.

Meanwhile, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was in Singapore for the Asean Regional Forum on Saturday.

On Friday, Ri is also due to hold bilateral discussions with various countries, including Thailand.

The joint communique, finalised on Thursday shortly after the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting, welcomes more friendly gestures between the US-North Korea while also urging all parties “to continue working towards the realisation of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearised Korean peninsula.”

Since May, the monthly demonstration in Seoul has shattered records to become the biggest-ever women’s protest in South Korea where the global #MeToo movement has unleashed an unprecedented wave of female-led activism.

The target of their fury: so-called “molka” or spycam videos which largely involve men secretly filming women in schools, offices, trains, toilets and changing rooms and which are so prevalent they make headlines on a daily basis.

“Entering a public bathroom is such an unnerving experience these days,” Lee said, adding that she always looked around the walls to see if there were any “suspicious holes”.

“You never know if there’s a spycam lens hidden inside… filming you while you pee,” the 21-year-old student told AFP, saying she sometimes stabbed the holes with a pen to shatter any secret lenses, or stuffed tissues inside them.

The statistics are startling, with the number of spycam crimes reported to police surging from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year.

The offenders have included school teachers, professors, doctors, church pastors, government officials, police officers and even a court judge.

In some cases, the victims’ own boyfriends or relatives were responsible for the crimes, in a troubling reflection of South Korea’s deep-rooted patriarchal norms.

Fed up of living in fear, women are fighting back.

More than 55,000 attended last month’s protest in Seoul, according to its organisers, although police put the attendance at around 20,000.

“The pent-up anger among women has finally reached a boiling point”, one of the protest organisers who only identified herself as Ellin told AFP.

Lucrative business

Asia’s fourth-largest economy takes pride in its tech prowess, from ultra-fast Internet to cutting-edge smartphones.

This picture taken on June 9, 2018 shows a red placard reading “My life is not your porn” during a monthly protest by South Korean women against secretly-filmed spycam pornography in Seoul. // AFP PHOTO

But these advances have also given rise to an army of tech-savvy peeping Toms, with videos widely shared in internet chatrooms and on file-sharing sites, or used as adverts for websites promoting prostitution.

Although all manufacturers of smartphones sold in the South are required to ensure their devices make a loud shutter noise when taking photos — a move designed to curb covert filming — many offenders use special apps that mute the sound, or turn to high-tech spy cameras hidden inside eye glasses, lighters, watches, car keys and even neckties.

A 43-year-old man was arrested last month for secretly filming occupants of Seoul motels for four years, installing ultra-mini lenses inside TV speakers and other equipment after posing as a guest.

A police raid uncovered more than 20,000 spycam videos at his home.

In June a 34-year-old man was arrested for secretly filming women inside toilets and selling thousands of videos online for up to 100,000 won ($90) apiece.

Justice is rarely served — most offenders are fined or given suspended jail terms, which many women’s rights groups decry as a mere slap on the wrist.

Except, campaigners say, in the rare cases where the perpetrator is female and the victim male.

The arrest in May of a woman who secretly filmed a male model posing nude at a Seoul art college, days after she shared the image online, was a catalyst for the unprecedented protests this summer.

“The police have rarely responded when countless female victims asked for the immediate arrest of the offender”, Seo Seung-hui, head of the non-profit Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Centre, told AFP.

In this case the suspect was paraded in front of TV cameras while police raided her home to search for evidence. Authorities even launched a probe targeting those who shamed the male model online in an uncharacteristically swift response.

“The women saw how quickly…the police responded to this rare case in which the victim was a man…such unfair treatment fuelled the recent wave of anger”, Seo said.

‘Make change happen’

Campaigners have called for harsher punishments for those who film, distribute and view such images. They have also urged tougher regulations to restrict the sale of high-tech spycam equipment.

This picture taken on June 9, 2018 shows a South Korean woman holding a red placard reading “Angry women will change the world” during a monthly protest against secretly-filmed spycam pornography in Seoul. // AFP PHOTO

But in a sign of the ugly fight ahead of them, many of the protesters at a recent rally kept their faces covered and declined to be photographed due to worries over personal safety, with previous participants becoming the targets of relentless online bullying.

Despite their fears, they refuse to back down.

“Seeing so many women gather together to speak up was a deeply empowering experience”, protest organiser Ellin said.

“We have power. Together, we can make change happen”, she said.

“The West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea has been an area of complex disputes and disagreements,” Cayetano said before meeting his Asean counterparts and the bloc’s partners. “If and when we can finally agree on an effective code of conduct [COC], we can transform this area into a sea of peace, development and cooperation.

“We will be pushing for a framework that will not further complicate and instead create environments to talk and solve territorial and sovereign rights disputes,” Cayetano said.

The whole region could benefit from the resources available in the South China Sea if they can share or find a way to cooperate “without damaging or surrendering any sovereign rights or territorial claims”, the minister added.

He gave no details about the text, claiming there is also “room to negotiation”, but noted that it contains “very good input”.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also noted the fact that Asean and China agreed to the single text is an “important step forward”.

“We’re still discussing… legal issues to ensure that the South China Sea is free from activities that can cause concern to Asean member states,” Saifuddin said. “I’m happy to see that discussion is going on very well and look forward to an agreement.”

Asean and China’s foreign ministers were able to agree on the single text in Singapore on Thursday, a significant step toward establishing more binding COC over the contentious sea.

China has previously used allies within Asean, principally Cambodia and Laos, to block consensus and joint resolutions on the South China Sea dispute.

Retired academic Sun Wenguang, who is in his mid-80s, was speaking live to a Chinese-language TV show for Voice of America (VOA) when the authorities suddenly showed up.

“The police are here to interrupt again,” Sun said from his home in Jinan in the eastern province of Shandong, counting as many as eight intruders as he spoke in an audio broadcast on Wednesday.

“It’s illegal for you to come to my home. I have my freedom of speech!” are the final words heard from Sun.

The dramatic recording highlights the increasing intensity of China’s efforts to silence critics of its policies as the ruling Communist Party aggressively nurtures a cult of personality around President Xi Jinping.

Sun had written an open letter to Xi last month that criticised China’s chequebook diplomacy in Africa, releasing it just as the leader embarked on a trip to the continent, according to VOA and online screenshots that could not be independently verified by AFP.

“Listen to what I say, is it wrong?” Sun asked the security detail in the recording.

“People are poor. Let’s not throw our money in Africa,” he said, telling the intruders that “throwing money like this is of no good to our country and society” before the line went dead.

‘Real tyranny’

Sun, who is one of China’s oldest activists, is kept under regular surveillance.

He was a co-signer of the pro-democracy manifesto Charter 08 — a quickly censored document that landed co-author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in prison. Liu died last year, the first Nobel winner to die in custody since Nazi Germany.

In 2009, Sun was viciously beaten by authorities when he snuck past guards watching his building in an attempt to pay his respects to ousted Communist leader Zhao Ziyang — who opposed the use of force to quell the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests — on the 10th anniversary of the former premier’s death.

Repeated calls by AFP to his mobile and home phone number went unanswered Friday, as did messages sent via social messaging app WeChat. Calls to the Jinan public security bureau and the publicity department of Shandong University, his former employer, also yielded no response.

“Every time you hear overblown rhetoric about how we are on the verge of ‘tyranny’ or ‘authoritarianism’ in America remember what real tyranny and authoritarianism looks like,” said US Senator Marco Rubio of the incident on Twitter.

VOA is “monitoring the situation closely and will provide an update to program viewers once more information becomes available,” its spokeswoman Bridget Serchak said in a statement.