The Philippines has been discussing coordinated naval patrols on its southern maritime borders with Indonesia and Malaysia to protect shipping after attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants, its foreign minister said on Thursday (April 28).

Philippine Foreign Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said his country was only proposing separate but coordinated patrols to identify safe corridors where ships can travel.

Indonesia last week called for joint maritime patrols with the Philippines and Malaysia. Joint patrols would involve ships from the three navies patrolling together and crossing into each other’s territorial waters.

Officials from the three sides are due to meet in Jakarta on May 5 to discuss co-operation. “The issue is safety and security,” Mr Almendras told Reuters after signing an infrastructure loan agreement with South Korea.

“It’s called coordinated patrols, we’ll do our patrols and they will have their own patrols in their own territorial waters so there will be no more threats to the movement of ships, including the kidnapping of sailors.”

Indonesia is trying to free about 14 of its citizens seized from tugboats by Abu Sayyaf rebels from the southern Philippines and has called for joint patrols. Four Malaysian seamen are also being held.

The Islamist rebels, who are raking in tens of millions of dollars in ransom, decapitated a Canadian on Monday and are still holding 23 hostages. Citizens of the Netherlands, Japan, Norway and the Philippines are among them.

Two Indonesian coal ports have blocked ships from leaving to the Philippines and Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state due to security concerns.

The growing frequency of maritime attacks has affected coal trade between the South-east Asian neighbours Indonesia, the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, and the Philippines, which, relies on Jakarta for 70 per cent of its coal imports.

Abu Sayyaf, known for kidnappings, beheadings, bombings and extortion, is one of the most brutal militant groups in the Muslim south of the largely Christian Philippines.

Outgoing President Benigno Aquino has promised to devote his remaining days in office to crushing the militants. Fourteen rebels have been killed in bombing of the stronghold of Jolo island since Tuesday, a military spokesman said.

Since 2006, the United States has provided nearly US$200 million (S$268 million) in military aid to strengthen naval forces of the three South-east Asian countries to combat piracy and militancy.

North Korea on Thursday tried and failed in what appeared to be its second attempt in two weeks to test a powerful, new medium-range ballistic missile, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

A ministry official said the North had fired what was believed to be a Musudan missile at around 6:40 am (2140 GMT Wednesday) from Wonsan on the east coast, but it plunged back to earth seconds after launch.

“It is believed to have failed,” the official told AFP.

There had been widespread intelligence reports in recent days that the North was preparing for another flight test of a Musudan, which is capable of striking US bases on the Pacific island of Guam.

North Korea initially launched a Musudan on April 15 – the birthday of founding leader Kim Il-Sung – but the exercise ended in what the Pentagon described as “fiery, catastrophic” failure, with the missile apparently exploding just after take-off.

The failed tests come as the country is gearing up for a rare and much-hyped ruling party congress next month, at which Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country’s nuclear weapons programme to new heights.

There is growing concern that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a fifth nuclear test in the run-up to the event which opens May 6.

In recent months the North has claimed a series of major technical breakthroughs in developing what it sees as the ultimate goal of its nuclear weapons programme – an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets across the continental United States.

The achievements trumpeted by Pyongyang have included miniaturising a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile, developing a warhead that can withstand atmospheric re-entry and building a solid-fuel missile engine.

Last Saturday, it successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) and was promptly criticised by the UN Security Council.

Existing UN resolutions forbid North Korea from the use of any ballistic missile-related technology.

The Musudan is believed to have an estimated range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres (1,550 to 2,500 miles). The lower range covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam.

The missile has never been successfully flight-tested.

Two failures in swift succession will be seen as an embarrassment for the leadership, especially ahead of the party congress which is meant to celebrate the country’s achievements.

Speaking last weekend during a visit to Germany, US President Barack Obama warned that North Korea was making dangerous progress even when its efforts fell short of outright success.

“Although, more often than not, they fail in many of these tests, they gain knowledge each time,” Obama said.

“We take it very seriously, so do our allies and so does the entire world,” he added.

Anxiety has been high on the divided Korean peninsula since Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The UN Security Council responded with its toughest sanctions to date, angering the North, which has since made repeated threats of attacks targeting the South and the United States.

SEOUL – South Korean athletes at the Rio Olympics will wear long-sleeved training kit impregnated with mosquito repellant to protect them from the Zika virus, the national Olympic committee said Thursday.

Brazil – the epicentre of the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak – hosts the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21.

The virus is blamed for birth defects in babies born to women infected with the virus. Brazil has reported around 1.5 million Zika infections out of a global total of 2.0 million.

The South Korean training kit and uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies will cover most of the body and be infused with repellant, a spokeswoman of the Korean Olympic Committee said, but competition kit could not be similarly treated, due to strict regulations.

“But we will distribute mosquito-repellant sprays to the athletes and will also vaccinate them against other diseases that can be spread by mosquitoes just in case,” the spokeswoman said.

The committee will also train athletes on ways to avoid mosquito bites.

There is no vaccine or cure for the Zika virus, which in most people causes only mild symptoms – a rash, joint pain or fever.

The South Korean team is seeking at least 10 golds in Rio to take a top-10 spot in the overall medals table.