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1.The Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the East Sea at around 5:30 a.m., but the missile exploded midair. The military said there is a possibility that the North could have test-fired a hypersonic missile.

2.Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong and head of the Korea Medical Association Lim Hyun-taek met for the first time on Wednesday while attending a parliamentary hearing on the ongoing medical crisis at the National Assembly.

3.According to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the number of babies born in South Korea marked on-year growth for the first time in 19 months in April, as the country is struggling to boost its ultra-low birth rate. A total of roughly 19-thousand babies were born in April this year, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier.

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday denounced North Korea's sending of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea and its military cooperation with Russia as "anachronistic" acts that go against the progress in history, during an address marking the 74th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.

2.At least 23 workers, mostly Chinese nationals, were killed after a fire at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, Monday. The foreign ministry held an emergency meeting in the wake of the fire to review measures to support the foreign victims.

3.The European Union formally launched accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, setting the states off on a path towards membership. According to EU officials, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected midweek in Brussels.

1.Former ruling People Power Party interim leader Han Dong-hoon and two other PPP politicians announced their bids for party leadership on Sunday. Representative Lee Jae-myung resigned as chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party on Monday in a step to seek another term as party leader in a national convention set for August.

2.National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said Sunday that South Korea will not be bound by anything with regard to its assistance to Ukraine if Russia provides North Korea with precision weapons.

3.The official Saudi Press Agency reported Sunday that at least 1,300 people have died during this year's Haji pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat, adding that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

1.South Korea on Friday summoned the top Russian envoy in Seoul to lodge a protest over a new treaty Russia signed with North Korea that calls for immediate military assistance if either is attacked. The South Korean government also said Thursday it will reconsider its stance on arms supply to Ukraine.

2.Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday the city of Gyeongju in South Korea's North Gyeongsang Province has been recommended as the host city candidate for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Confirmation is expected to be made later this month.

3.President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that South Korea will create a small modular reactor industrial complex in the city of Gyeongju and a hydrogen industrial cluster in North Gyeongsang Province to boost the local economy, during his 26th debate forum on improving people's livelihoods in Gyeongsan.

1.North Korea and Russia agreed to provide immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression, under the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement that the leaders of North Korea and Russia signed Wednesday.

2.According to Seoul’s defense ministry on Wednesday, Romania will buy 920 million U.S. dollars worth of South Korean K-9 self-propelled howitzers. The deal was announced during South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik’s weeklong trip to Eastern Europe.

3.President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday declared that South Korea is in a “demographic national emergency” due to its declining population, and vowed to tackle the low birth rate by providing better housing and improving support for child care.

1.According to Sputnik news on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement. Putin arrived in Pyongyang early on Wednesday in his first trip to North Korea in 24 years and held summit talks with Kim.

2.The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday sent inspectors to the office of the Korean Medical Association in Seoul and conducted a probe regarding the KMA-led one-day walkout on Tuesday that involved community doctors and other medical staff, as well as a massive rally in Seoul.

3.According to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery on Wednesday, a girl statue symbolizing the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery will be unveiled to the public in Italy for the first time.