Police and the National Forensic Service said Tuesday that the immediate cause of Kim‘s death was a head injury, serious enough to have instantly killed the actor. They added that there was no evidence of myocardial infarction, which was previously reported as a possible cause that led to the car accident. A more detailed autopsy result will become available after about a week, police said. On Tuesday morning, Gangnam Police station said that it had asked the NFS to conduct an autopsy on Kim in order to verify the exact cause of his death. Kim‘s body was sent to NFS Tuesday morning at around 9 a.m.

Kim, 45, was driving a Mercedes-Benz SUV down Yeongdong Daero when it crashed into Hyundai Grandeur near an I-Park apartment complex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, on Monday at around 4:30 p.m. Kim’s car then crashed into the wall of an apartment block and flipped down the stairs. Firefighters extricated Kim from the vehicle at around 5:07 p.m. and took him to Konkuk University Medical Center. Kim died at the hospital at around 6:30 p.m. It has been reported that officials from the hospital named myocardial infarction as a major cause of the accident.

While the police still haven’t found electronic recording devices from either Kim’s car or the Grandeur, it said Tuesday that there have been a number of misunderstandings concerning the accident. Previously, the driver of the Grandeur had told police that Kim seemed to be in pain, clutching his chest, after the SUV crashed into his car from the rear, adding that the car then swerved into the apartment wall. But after analyzing a footage of the accident recorded by a vehicle behind Kim’s car, secured by police Monday, police said that Kim’s car didn’t ram from the rear but crashed to the right side of the car.

The Grandeur driver later admitted the error of his earlier statement saying that he was confused at the time of the accident. The Grandeur driver also corrected his statement about Kim clutching his chest in pain, saying that Kim was actually grabbing the steering wheel with his two hands while leaning his chest on it with a pain-stricken face.

Kim’s agency Namoo Actors said Tuesday that Kim’s wake will be held at Asan Medical Center in Songpa-gu, Seoul, from 3 p.m. Tuesday while the funeral will take place on Thursday. Kim will be buried at a family vault in Seosan city in South Chungcheong Province.

US President Donald Trump will make his maiden visit to Asia from Nov 3 to 14, making stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Besides meeting the countries’ leaders, Trump will also attend the Apec summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, and Asean events in Manila, the Philippines.

The Straits Times’ foreign correspondents give a heads up on what to look out for, in each leg of Trump’s visit to Asia.

SOUTH KOREA

1. What is Trump’s true stance on Pyongyang?

Fire and fury, or return to talks? South Koreans will listen closely when  Trump delivers a speech in South Korea’s Parliament on Nov 8.

2. When  Trump meets Moon

Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae In will hold their third summit to date on Nov 7. Observers will watch out for potential cracks in their united front against the North, and if the two sides can iron out differences in issues like the transfer of wartime operational control of troops in South Korea from the US to Seoul, which  Moon has pushed for.

3. Don’t ask us to pay more

During his two-day stay,  Trump is expected to visit Camp Humphreys, a new major US base in Pyeongtaek, a port city 70km south of Seoul. Experts said South Korea will be eager to show its significant contribution to their defence burden-sharing deal and ease pressure from the American leader to pay more. South Korea now pays half of the bill, or about US$830 million (S$1.13 billion), to keep some 28,000 American troops in the country.

4. Will North Korea spoil the party?

Pyongyang has been unusually quiet in recent weeks, after firing a missile on Sept 15 that flew over Japan. Analysts say North Korea will be monitoring Trump’s visit while waiting for the right timing to launch its next provocation.

CHINA

1. North Korea likely a sticking point

The Chinese expect to face pressure from US President Donald Trump to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, but are unlikely to yield much to the Americans.

2. Give and take over trade

The Chinese will try and make more concessions to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries, in part to reduce US pressure on them to do more on North Korea.

VIETNAM

1. Vietnamese hopes

Vietnamese analysts hope Trump will make a statement underlining the US commitment to the region.

2. Vietnam the first off the blocks

Through strong lobbying, Vietnamese premier Nguyen Xuan Phuc became the first Asean leader to visit the White House, in May 2017.

3. Vietnam-US relations

Vietnam’s hopes of an economic fillip through the Trans Pacific Partnership were deflated when Trump pulled the United States out of the trading agreement. But bilateral security cooperation has kept steady. In May 2017, the US government transferred to the Vietnamese coast guard six patrol boats and a high endurance cutter, a large vessel that can be used for ocean patrols.

PHILIPPINES

1. Give the assurance that South-east Asia matters to the US

Trump has to reaffirm US commitments as an Asia-Pacific power, amid China’s rising influence in the region.

2. Spell out his intentions

Trump is expected to outline a more detailed security and economic policy to assuage concerns arising from his decision to opt out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact and his lack of interest in disputes over the South China Sea.

3. Rally South-east Asia behind US efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions

4. Support efforts to fight terrorism

Trump is expected to press Asean states to step up efforts to combat evolving threats from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

5. Back Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs

He will likely support  Duterte’s anti-crime drive, but avoid mentioning the thousands of criminal suspects killed in its wake.

JAPAN

1. North Korea’s missile and nuclear development

All has been quiet on the North Korean front since it sent a ballistic missile flying over Japan in September, and observers are on the lookout for signs of a potential provocation with Trump in the neighbourhood. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have been in lockstep over tightening the noose on the North through economic sanctions to make it renounce its missile and nuclear development programmes, and the duo will likely again discuss the issue.

2. Abduction victims

Trump surprised Japan in September when he referred to North Korea’s systematic kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s to 1980s in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Japan has been lobbying for the return of its citizens, and Trump is scheduled to meet their next-of-kin.

3. Maritime security

Amid increasing Chinese assertiveness in the seas, Abe hopes to win  Trump’s backing for Tokyo’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” to ensure smooth navigation. The US has held four freedom of navigation operations in five months in the South China Sea, after a seven-month hiatus, in a sign of its commitment to the region. Japan is embroiled in a territorial dispute with China over a group of islets in the East China Sea that Tokyo calls the Senkakus and Beijing terms the Diaoyus. The US has said that its security treaty with Japan covers the islands.

4. Trade issues

The one issue that  Trump and  Abe do not see eye to eye on – trade – will likely not feature high on the agenda though it is still expected to be discussed. Trump favours bilateral trade deals while Abe champions multilateral frameworks such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact which the US has pulled out of. They have been inclined to leave the issue to their deputies, who met in Washington in October.

5. Technology cooperation

Abe is expected to make a push for the US to adopt its shinkansen high-speed rail technology, as well as pursue other areas of collaboration such as autonomous driving and next-generation computers for the development of artificial intelligence.

Companies are increasingly competing to develop high-tech agricultural drones for crop spraying and other uses, working to sell their drones to small-scale farmers, who are facing a serious shortage of successors.

For the use of agricultural drones to spread, the key lies in whether the government will allow full automation of pesticide spraying.

Work done in 10 minutes

A drone two meters in diameter flew over onion fields Wednesday and sprinkled water over them instead of pesticide. The screen of the remote control held by the person operating it displayed the location of the flying drone and areas where pesticide was sprayed. The device was the latest agricultural drone developed by SkymatiX, Inc., a Tokyo-based venture jointly established last year by Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi, Ltd.

SkymatiX was demonstrating crop spraying for the media on Wednesday, using the drone on a farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. “We’re confident about the stability of the body,” said Zentaro Watanabe, 38, the chief operating officer of SkymatiX.

An agricultural drone has a tank that is capable of carrying pesticides and fertilizers on the lower part of its body. For a farmer using a backpack-style pesticide sprayer, it takes a whole day to spray one hectare of land. However, the drone can do the same task in about 10 minutes. Such drones cost ¥3 million to ¥3.5 million each.

Promising market

According to a Tokyo-based research company Seed Planning, Inc., the crop-spraying drone market is expected to grow from ¥1.2 billion in 2016 to ¥20 billion in 2022. Many companies are entering the market one after another. “It’s a promising market,” a source close to a trading firm said.

Nileworks Inc., a Tokyo-based venture company whose investors include Sumitomo Corp., emphasizes that its drone can spray pesticide and fertilizer while photographing and monitoring the growing conditions of rice plants in paddies with a camera. The company plans to test-market the drone in May 2018.

“We’ll make agriculture a cutting-edge industry that can attract young people,” said Nileworks President Hiroshi Yanagishita, 57.

Kubota Corp., which began selling agricultural drones in July this year, aims to develop a system to analyze the image data taken by a drone, such as the growing conditions of crops, and have artificial intelligence (AI) provide operating instructions to self-driving tractors.

Barriers to full automation

There are obstacles to the spread of agricultural drones. Under the guidelines of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, when a pesticide-spraying drone is used, support personnel should attend the site along with operating personnel to monitor that the drone is not spraying pesticides outside the fields.

Fully automated spraying that can be completed with one push of a button is not allowed under the current system, prompting some to say this causes elderly farmers and others to be hesitant to introduce drones.

The agriculture ministry will hold a meeting of an expert panel early next year to discuss how to ensure the safety of drones and other issues. The ministry then plans to make a decision on whether to allow fully automated spraying within this fiscal year.

The state-run Seoul Bio Hub officially opened in Hongneung, central Seoul, Monday, with the city’s government pledging to lend support to promising local biohealth startups and to forge a biotechnology cluster here.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government held a ceremony celebrating the opening of the first main building in the Seoul Bio Cluster, which houses collaboration offices to connect local biohealth startups with big industry players.

Located in the facility is the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office, which began operations Monday. It is operated by the Asia-Pacific branch of J&J Innovation, the strategic venture arm of the US health care giant.

Through its new Seoul base, J&J Innovation said it plans to discover and provide business and research partnership opportunities to South Korean startups specializing in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer health goods.

The new partner office will house 10 startups selected by the city’s program and two winning startups from the “Quick Fire Challenges” competition co-hosted by J&J and the city of Seoul, they said.

Of the 10 selected startups, the top five will receive 150 million won ($133,000) in funding while the remainder will receive three months of business mentorship in areas like patent registrations, technology commercialization and marketing from industry experts.

In addition, Seoul City plans to open a new research and development space and a community center for young entrepreneurs and local citizens by 2018. A global business support center offering access to global startup accelerators and export support is slated for completion by 2023 as well.

The Seoul Bio Hub stands at the center of Korea’s efforts to build up a successful biotech cluster similar to those that are in successful operations in places like Boston, San Diego, London and Singapore.

A biotech cluster refers to a region or city possessing an ecosystem of strong life sciences R&D institutions, venture capital firms, a base of well-trained scientists and a talent pool that can turn good science into new business opportunities.

As part of this push, the city of Seoul plans to provide 500 working spaces for startups by 2023 and invest 15 billion won toward purchasing 99 types of laboratory equipment including microscopes and centrifuges by 2021.

It will also form a 40 billion won fund to help promising biohealth startups in their early stages commercialize their technologies and products and invite more global healthcare startup accelerators to buttress Korea’s biotech innovation.

“The Seoul Bio Hub is a ‘biotech control tower’ that supports everyone from early-stage entrepreneurs to companies preparing to go global. We will work closely with the central government and regional institutions to support the growth of Korea’s biohealth sector,” said Seo Dong-rok, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s economic planning headquarters.

The Grandeur driver said Kim seemed to be in pain, grabbing his chest, after the SUV crashed into his car from the rear, adding that the car then swerved into the apartment wall. Police confirmed that smoke was coming out of Kim’s car, but there was no fire.

Firefighters extricated Kim from the vehicle at around 5:07 p.m. and took him to Konkuk University Medical Center. Kim died at the hospital at around 6:30 p.m. It has been reported that Kim’s residence in Cheongdam-dong, is only three minutes by car from the site of the accident. Police are investigating the exact cause.

Kim most recently played a reporter in the miniseries “Argon” in September. The second son of the late actor Kim Mu-saeng, he debuted in 1998 in the SBS drama “Letters Written on a Cloudy Day.” Kim also starred in Hong Sang-soo’s “Yourself and Yours” (2016) and Kim Sung-hoon’s “Confidential Assignment” (2017).

The actor also gained popularity through the travel reality program “2 Days & 1 Night,” where he once revealed that he had served as a driver during his mandatory military service.

On Friday, Kim won an award for best supporting actor at the Seoul Awards for his appearance in “Confidential Assignment.”

In December 2016 the actor said that he was in a relationship with actress Lee Yu-young. Media reports said Lee was shooting SBS’ variety show “Running Man” in Busan at the time of the accident, and the shooting was halted when the news broke.

A representative of Kim’s agency Namoo Actors said it was currently confirming details of the incident.

Representatives of the Confederation of Thai Journalists (CTJ), led by its president Thepchai Yong, on Monday met Deputy Prime Minister Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn and representatives from the Tourism and Sports Ministry and Culture Ministry at Government House.

The biennial conference, to be held from January 24 to 28 next year, aims to enhance cooperation among Asean media and highlight the role of Thai media in the region, said Thepchai.

The CAJ, which celebrates its 42nd anniversary next year, will also focus on supporting the freedoms of regional media.

Tanasak affirmed that the government will support the event.

The CTJ will receive the chairmanship of the conference from the Vietnam Journalists Association, Thepchai said.

The CAJ consists of the CTJ, Vietnam Journalists Association, Indonesian Journalists Association, National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia, Lao Journalists Association, National Press club of The Philippines and Singapore National Union of Journalists.

Media groups from China, Japan and South Korea – Asean Plus Three countries – will also be invited to take part in the conference.

A ceremonial gong was struck nine times by the prime minister to mark the official opening of ‘Visit Laos Year 2018’.

“On this occasion, I’d like to invite all tourists from Laos and overseas to visit Laos, with joy and happiness throughout the year and forever,” Thongloun said.

The launch of ‘Visit Laos Year 2018’ coincided with the start of the annual That Luang festival which features a trade fair, a display of traditional houses, cultural performances and activities relating to traditional worship rituals at That Luang Stupa as well as cultural, religious and spiritual events.

The launch highlights included performances of songs and dances.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Professor Dr Bosengkham Vongdara also delivered a speech at the event, which was attended by hundreds of people including government leaders, foreign media and invited guests from Laos and abroad.

The minister underscored the importance of the tourism industry which has expanded rapidly in countries around the world.

“In recent years, the government of the Lao PDR has likewise come to regard tourism as a priority sector for driving socio-economic development,” he said.

“Tourism brings spending on goods and services that can boost currency reserves and money flow and create more job opportunities for people in the service and production sectors, particularly agriculture and handicraft production.”

Professor Dr Bosengkham said tourism is a form of export and generates income to local and rural communities in remote regions.

But critics raised questions about how the government can best promote Laos to the rest of the world when the amount of information available is limited.

Editor-in-Chief of e-Global Travel Media, Stephen Morton, said Laos has great potential to offer experiences to international visitors, but needs to improve accessibility (visa facilitation) and ensure more information is available.

For instance, the event calendar related to festivals and activities must be readily available so that more tourists can plan on attending those events.

Improvement of infrastructure and services including road access to tourist attractions and internet speed is also critical. The government has organised Visit Laos Year on two previous occasions – once in 1999-2000 and again in 2011-12 to encourage more tourists at home and abroad to visit sites within the country.

In 2000, tourist arrivals amounted to 737,208 people and generated income of US$113,898,285.

By 2015 the figure had risen to 4,684,429 people, generating some US$725,365,681 in revenue. It is projected that tourist arrivals will reach about 6,206,423 people by 2020 and generate revenue amounting to US$993,427,000.

During ‘Visit Laos Year 2018’, the nation will seek to attract at least 5 million arrivals generating revenue of about US$900 million.

To better promote the ‘Visit Laos Year 2018’ campaign, the government approved six slogans of “Warmly Welcome to Visit Laos Year 2018”; “Laos Jewel of the Mekong”; “Laos Simply Beautiful”; “ Be the Good Host for Visit Laos Year 2018”; “Visit, Enjoy, Safety, Environmentally Friendly”; “Visit Laos, Experience the Diversity of Nature, Culture and History”.

The trade fair features more than 1,000 booths at two venues: Lao ITECC (460 booths) and That Luang Esplanade (640 booths).

He said the market share for electric cars is set to reach 20 percent in 2025.

“Developing electric cars is the best way to go. There are no better choices,” said Prasetyo at the 53rd anniversary of the University of Indonesia’s (UI) Technology School in Jakarta on Sunday.

UI’s electricity car development team deputy chairman Mohamad Adhytya said there were a number of reasons why electric cars needed to be developed, including the depletion of fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions.

“The benefit of using electric cars includes zero emissions, lower operating costs and cheaper energy,” Mohamad told kompas.com on Monday, adding that the electric car was also more efficient because electricity can be easily transmitted.

However, engineers also needed to anticipate a number of disadvantages, including the lengthy charging process, what to do with old batteries and the limited distance attained by electric cars.

He said it was a challenge for the experts to develop fast charging batteries and a more efficient waste recycle process. “After being continuously used, batteries should be replaced. We need technology to solve these problems.”

The government has issued Presidential Regulation No. 22/2017 on the general plan for national energy to support the development of electric cars.