Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country, overtaking China with almost three million more people in the middle of 2023, data released on Wednesday by the United Nations said. The demographic data from the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) “State of World Population Report, 2023” estimates India’s population will be 1,428.6 million or 1.4286 billion against 1.4257 billion for China. The exact population will not be known until India has completed its decadal census count, which was postponed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

J-Hope, a Grammy-nominated K-pop boy band BTS member, began his mandatory military service in South Korea on Tuesday. The singer kept a low profile as a van carrying him entered the venue for his military enlistment ceremony in the city of Wonju, some 87 kilometres from Seoul, news agency Yonhap reported. J-Hope, 29, is the second member of the popular group of seven to enlist following Jin, the oldest, who joined the military in December. All able-bodied men in South Korea between the ages of 18 and 28 must serve in the military for 18 to 21 months.

Around 2.4 million people in Thailand have sought medical treatment for illnesses related to air pollution since the beginning of this year, said health authorities, as toxic smog choked many parts of the country. Bangkok and Chiang Mai were among the most polluted cities in the world on Thursday morning.  According to the Bangkok Post, if PM2.5 levels exceed 150 micrograms per cubic meter, the areas affected are designated as red zones, and village heads are alerted four times a day.

China announced on April 14 that it had conducted a successful missile interception test, which China Media Group reported as a "one-shot kill." The test was designed to assess China's ability to intercept an incoming missile in flight and involved launching a test missile to simulate an attack on Chinese territory, which was then destroyed mid-course by another missile.

(Cover: People walk through Sadar Bazaar (Market) in New Delhi, India. April 18, 2023. /CFP)