Focus on Headline

1. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Thursday that South Korea and the United States wrapped up the annual Freedom Shield combined military exercise designed to reinforce deterrence against North Korean threats, amid a month-long pause in Pyongyang's missile launches. 2. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday pledged to quickly establish a transportation network in Jeollanam-do Province, by...

1. South Korea's trade minister Cheong In-kyo said Tuesday that South Korean companies will receive subsidies under the U.S. CHIPS Act and that the U.S. government is expected to make a related announcement soon. 2. According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, South Korea added more than 300-thousand jobs for the second consecutive month in February, led by solid job growth in...

1. According to data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, the increase in fruit prices last month outpaced the overall inflation rate by a record margin. Fruit prices surged 40.6% on-year in February, which was 37.5 percentage points higher than the country's consumer price index. 2. The health ministry on Tuesday vowed to swiftly implement a set of measures to reform and improve the state medica...

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged Monday to ease regulations to boost the tourism industry in Gangwon-do Province, emphasizing that additional cable car systems could be constructed according to the wishes of local residents. 2. South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission announced last Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency will participate in cross-verification of samp...

1. South Korea’s foreign ministry said late Thursday it will replace the Office of Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs with the Office of Strategy and Intelligence, downsizing the bureau handling the North Korean nuclear issue to create a department focused on foreign policy intelligence-gathering. 2. According to data released by the Bank of Korea on Friday, South Korea's current acco...

1. President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Thursday to boost the aviation industry through projects to expand infrastructure in the city of Incheon. He also promised the government will develop the airline service industry by making sure that Korean Air’s acquisition of Asiana Airlines creates good synergy. 2. The North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that its leader Kim Jong-un ca...

1. According to data from Statistics Korea on Wednesday, South Korea's inflation increased to 3.1 percent on-year in February on high prices of fresh food items and energy. Prices of 18 major kinds of fruits combined surged 41.2 percent last month, the largest increase in more than 32 years. 2. The chief spokesperson of the Korean Medical Association appeared before police for questioning Wedn...

1. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for doctors’ collective actions announced Tuesday that 40 medical schools nationwide applied for a combined 3,401 additional admission seats, a number that exceeds the government's planned increase of 2,000 more slots. 2. The Bank of Korea announced Tuesday that the nation's gross national income per capita came to 33-thousand-...

1. The health ministry said Monday it started taking procedures to suspend the licenses of around 7-thousand trainee doctors who have defied the government’s order to return to work after walking off their job in protest of plans to increase the medical school quota. 2. South Korea and the United States started the annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday. The joint military exercise will run for...

1. President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday that South Korea and Japan are partners in the pursuit of global peace and prosperity as they work to overcome their "painful past" and move toward a new future, as he marked the 105th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement. 2. According to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Friday, South Korea's exports a...

1. According to the Health Ministry, roughly 300 trainee doctors who walked off their jobs to protest the government's plan to increase medical school admissions returned to work as of Thursday - the deadline set by the government for them to return to work before potentially facing punitive measures. 2. Rival parties on Thursday agreed on an electoral district map for the upcoming parliamenta...

1. Four lawmakers left the main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday amid an escalating dispute over what they perceive as unfair candidate nominations for the April 10 parliamentary elections. The factional rift peaked when Im Jong-seok, a former chief of staff for President Moon Jae-in, was not nominated on Tuesday. 2. Health ministry officials on Wednesday started visiting the homes of trai...

1. The health ministry on Tuesday said the number of new patients has fallen 24 percent at general hospitals, while the number of surgeries performed has plunged 50 percent since trainee doctors began the mass walkout in protest of the government's plan to increase the medical school admission quota. 2. The price of bitcoin topped the 55-thousand U.S. dollar level on Tuesday, trading at its hi...

1. The health ministry on Monday warned that trainee doctors who refused to return to work by Thursday could start facing punishment next month. The number of trainee doctors who submitted resignations topped 10-thousand against the government's plan to raise the medical school admission quota. 2. The South Korean government will introduce a system to regulate stress debt service ratio for hou...

1. The top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan held a meeting on Thursday on the margins of a foreign ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,...and highlighted the importance of trilateral coordination to respond to North Korea's provocative acts and its military support for Russia's war against Ukraine. 2. In response to the prolonged collective...

1. The monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea kept its policy rate unchanged at 3.5 percent for the ninth straight session Thursday, amid woes over slower-than-expected inflation moderation and high household debts. It also maintained its growth outlook for the year at 2.1 percent. 2. At the 14th round of the New Year’s presidential public debates on Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged t...

1. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday held phone talks with German and Danish leaders to explain his decision to postpone his visits to the European countries. The presidential office did not give an official reason for Yoon postponing his trip four days before his scheduled departure. 2. Japan's engineering company Hitachi Zosen and the country's government on Tuesday expressed “extreme r...

1. The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday ordered 831 trainee doctors to return to work. More than 6,400 trainee doctors have submitted their resignations in protest of the government's plan to add 2,000 to the country's medical school enrollment quota next year. 2. Former prime minister Lee Nak-yon who left the main opposition Democratic Party ahead of April's general elections...

1. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Monday that the government will fully expand telemedicine services in the event of a massive walkout by doctors. Trainee doctors have been warning of a large-scale strike in opposition to the government's decision to add 2,000 to the country's medical school enrollment quota next year. 2. The National Assembly began the February extraordinary session on...

1. {김여정}Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Thursday the regime is open to improving its relationship with Japan, and that the Japanese leader may visit Pyongyang if Tokyo does not raise the longstanding issue of Japanese abductees. 2. Worries over doctors' collective action in protest of a plan to increase medical students mounted Friday as trainee doctors at m...

1. South Korea established diplomatic relations with Cuba on Wednesday, its mission to the United Nations said, in a surprise announcement that could pose a setback to North Korea that has long boasted brotherly ties with the Latin American country. 2. The Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-firing of a new surface-to-sea missile, n...

1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired several cruise missiles off the east coast Wednesday. The South Korean military detected the missiles launched at around 9 a.m. into waters northeast of Wonsan on the east coast. It marked the North's fifth cruise missile launch this year. 2. The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, on Tuesday conditionally approved...

1. An association of trainee doctors formed an emergency committee on Tuesday in protest of the government's plan to increase the number of medical students by 2-thousand. The association made no announcement about collective action after all-night discussions earlier in the day. 2. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday appointed former Industry Minister {주형환}Joo Hyung-hwan as vice chairman of...

1. According to the Korea Expressway Corp., some 5.2 million cars are expected to hit the road nationwide Friday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The Transport ministry designated over 130 locations on highways and roads for special management to ease congestion. Highway tolls will be exempt from Friday through Monday. 2. Four third-party forces which broke away from the ruling and op...

1. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Lunar New Year holiday interview with KBS TV aired on Wednesday night. During the 90-minute interview Yoon revealed his administration’s policies for the new year. 2. President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged Thursday to implement various policy support measures to assist small business owners struggling with loan repayments. The government will work to refund the interest, aver...