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 injecting 2.6 trillion won, or around two billion U.S. dollars, to build a superhighway connecting Yeongam and Gwangju that resembles Germany's Autobahn.

3. European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved the world’s most comprehensive legislation yet on artificial intelligence. The Artificial Intelligence Act establishes obligations for AI based on its potential risks and level of impact, and will take effect in roughly two years.

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 the manufacturing sector on the back of rising exports.

3. Former special counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his report that questioned U.S. President Joe Biden’s age and mental competence. Lawmakers turned the hearing on Biden’s handling of classified documents into a proxy campaign battle.

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 medical system, which aims to ease the burden on trainee doctors. One of the measures includes hiring more fellow doctors by counting two trainee doctors as one specialist.

3. South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday it has been providing consular assistance to a South Korean national arrested in Russia on espionage charges. Russia's TASS news agency reported Monday that a South Korean citizen has been held in a Moscow detention facility since late February

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 samples from the fifth discharge of treated radioactive water from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and that it hopes to participate in future cross-verification.

3. Palestinians in Gaza made preparations to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Sunday under Israeli siege that has severely restricted food to millions in the besieged enclave, as talks to secure a ceasefire stalled among mediators in Cairo.

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 account surplus reached 3-point-05 billion U.S. dollars in January on the back of strong exports of semiconductors and automobiles.

3. A Montenegro court on Thursday ruled that {권도형}Kwon Do-hyeong, the co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, should be extradited to South Korea to face trial for financial crimes, reversing an earlier decision to send him to the U.S.

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 called for intensifying "practical actual war drills" during a visit to a military training base, as South Korea and the United States hold its annual combined military exercises.

3. The European Union's Digital Markets Act came into effect at midnight Wednesday. The DMA is a set of regulations passed to reign in the dominance of the six big tech companies classed as “gatekeepers” — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance.

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 Wednesday in connection with the trainee doctors’ walkout. President Yoon Suk Yeol called the doctors’ collective action an act that “shakes the foundations of liberalism and the rule of law.”

3. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump dominated Super Tuesday primaries across the U.S. on Tuesday, setting up a rematch in November's general election despite low approval ratings for both candidates.

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-745 U.S. dollars in 2023, up two-point-six percent from a year earlier.

3. South Korea and the United States announced Tuesday their chief negotiators for talks on the sharing of the costs for the upkeep of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. Lee Tae-woo, a senior diplomat and former consul general in Sydney, will lead the South Korean delegation, while Linda Specht will lead the U.S. side.

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 11 days until March 14th amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s provocations.

3. China’s largest political event, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, opened on Monday. China’s parliament is expected to unveil economic targets and policies to reenergize the economy during the Two Sessions.

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 advanced 4.8 percent on-year to 52-point-4 billion U.S. dollars in February, as the outbound shipments of chips continued to grow.

3. Han Kang's latest novel "I Do Not Bid Farewell" won a French literary award, the {에밀 기메}Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature, on Friday. The novel was published in September 2021, and depicts the tragedy of a 1948 civilian massacre on South Korea's southern island of Jeju.