North Asian markets dipped Friday as concern spread after North Korea announced it would abandon the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Korea's main share index lingered near a three month low on Friday. The Kospi shed almost 5 percent over the week to end at 628.
Tokyo's Nikkei lost more than 1 percent since opening for its first trading day of the year on Monday. It ended Friday at 8,470.
"Pyongyang and them having pulled out of the Non-Proliferation treaty has got especially the Korean retail investors quite nervous but also clearly foreign investors. Investors who are based in the region are just moving out of Korea and safer havens such as Hong Kong for one where you have a large amount of utilities to choose from or ever further into southeast Asia," said Analyst Marcus Rosgen, who is with ING investment bank.
Taiwan and Hong Kong were bright spots in Asia this week.
In Taipei, shares hit their highest close in more than four months. Analysts say bargain hunters pushed stocks up and some technology stocks gained momentum from the U.S. Nasdaq's rally overnight. The main benchmark index ended almost 5 percent higher than a week ago, closing at 4,851.
Hong Kong, ended the week higher, gaining more than 1 percent on the week to close Friday at 9,722.