[Yonhap News headlines at this time] - 07:30

■ Acting Ambassador to Ukraine “Agreement to keep repatriation of North Korean prisoners as private as possible”

The Embassy of Ukraine in Ukraine announced on the 18th (local time) that while the South Korean and Ukrainian governments were discussing the repatriation of North Korean prisoners of war, there was a consensus that it should not be disclosed to the outside world for as long as possible. Ji-wan Yoon, acting ambassador (counselor) at the Embassy in Ukraine, said at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee's audit of government affairs held at the Embassy in Poland that day, "We never discussed when it would be made public, and there were many opinions that it would be good for it to remain private for as long as possible."

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018056951082

■ National Assembly inspection enters its third week... Expected issues such as prosecution reform and financial sector hacking incident

On the 19th, as the National Assembly audit entered its third week, the National Assembly is expected to engage in a battle over the Lee Jae-myung administration's prosecution reform and the integration of the Armed Forces Military Academy. On this day, the National Assembly audit will be conducted in eight standing committees, including ▲ Legislation and Judiciary Committee ▲ Political Affairs Committee ▲ National Defense Committee ▲ Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee ▲ Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, Oceans and Fisheries Committee ▲ Trade, Industry, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee ▲ Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee ▲ Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee. The Legislative and Judiciary Committee, which audits 11 prosecutors' offices in the metropolitan area and Gangwon-do, including the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, Suwon High Prosecutors' Office, and Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, is expected to face a tussle between the ruling and opposition parties over the abolition of the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights and the suspicion of so-called 'manipulated indictments'.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018025000001

■ Safety emergency at Jeongneungcheon Overpass with 100,000 vehicles passing per day… “Repeated damage to steel cables”

It was discovered that the external tension member (tendon) of the Jeongneungcheon Overpass bridge, which carries more than 100,000 vehicles a day, has repeatedly broken. It was also pointed out that replacement was being delayed even though corrosion and damage to some tendons were confirmed. On the 19th, Rep. Hwang Hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, announced this after analyzing data submitted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the National Land Safety Management Agency.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018047100004

■ U.S. lawmaker close to Trump "We are resetting Korea-U.S. relations... couple counseling, not divorce."

U.S. Senator Dave McCormick (Republican, Pennsylvania), a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said that the relationship between Korea and the U.S. is in the process of being "reset" and that this is not divorce but couples counseling. According to the Hudson Institute, a U.S. think tank, on the 18th (local time), Representative McCormick made this statement in a conversation with Mike Gallagher, former chairman of the House Special Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition, held in Washington, D.C. on the 16th. “We are resetting relationships,” McCormick said. “When you reset relationships, there are hurt feelings and there is friction.”

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261019003400071

■ “It’s like a war zone” Paris is in chaos… Looting amid intensifying protests

Burned vehicles, broken store windows, blackened iron structures and furniture lying around... On the 18th (local time), some streets in Paris, the capital of France, became chaotic after large-scale protests against the rising cost of living swept through the previous day. According to Reuters, the window glass of some stores on the Champs-Élysées in central Paris was also damaged. A protest by high school students in France, which began last month demanding improved educational environments, grew into a large-scale protest protesting against the rising cost of living and gas prices as workers and others joined in. As some of the protests turned violent, damage continued to occur, with buildings burning and stores being looted across France.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018043051109

■ Hemoglobin 4.0 Elderly man with shortness of breath, unable to get blood for 2 weeks… Nursing hospital ‘blood transfusion bottleneck’

Doctor A, who works at a nursing hospital in the metropolitan area, recently became blind while making rounds. This is because the hemoglobin level of an elderly patient in his 80s who was hospitalized fell to the 4.0 g/dL range. The hemoglobin level of a normal adult is around 13 to 14 g/dL, and in the general public, if this level drops to 4.0 g/dL, oxygen supply is blocked and people faint on the spot or their lives are in danger. The hospital immediately applied for blood to save the patient who was having difficulty even breathing, but could not obtain even a pack of blood for over a week. Depending on the blood type, there are even cases where blood transfusion is not possible even two weeks after application.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018035900530

■ The last academic ability evaluation before the CSAT is conducted on the 20th... 372,000 high school seniors took the exam

Ahead of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) for the 2027 school year, the last National Joint Scholastic Ability Test of the year, taken by third-year high school students, will be conducted on the 20th. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the office in charge of this academic ability evaluation, announced on the 19th that approximately 372,000 high school seniors from 1,855 high schools nationwide will take the test. In Seoul, 64,000 students will take the exam at 263 schools.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261016129400530

■ Sovereign wealth fund running KRW 339 trillion, core in-house AI is made in China… “Lack of security awareness”

It was revealed that Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), a 'sovereign wealth fund' that manages assets worth 339 trillion won, processes everything from document summarization and translation using in-house artificial intelligence (AI) to internal data search using a Chinese model. It is pointed out that security reviews should be strengthened during the introduction of AI by institutions that manage national assets, as models developed by research institutes subject to the U.S. government's export controls are also included. According to data submitted by KIC to People Power Party lawmaker Kang Min-guk, a member of the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee, on the 19th, among the four models installed in the in-house AI, the language model was China's Alibaba's 'Qwen3', and the search embedding model was the Beijing Institute of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI)'s 'BGE-M3'.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018027100002

■ 0.8 out of 100 people need to make a hole to become an executive at a large company... SK Hynix increased the most

It was found that the proportion of executives among the executives of the top 100 companies has remained at the 0.8% level for five years. The company with the largest increase in the number of executives over the past year was SK Hynix. On the 19th, the Korea CXO Research Institute, which specializes in corporate analysis, released the results of 'Analysis of the possibility of promotion to executives for employees of the top 100 companies in 2026', including this information.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261018042500003

■ Rainfall of up to 20 mm on the way to work in the southern and Jeju areas... Highest 25 degrees during the day

On Monday the 19th, there will be rain on the way to work, mainly in the southern region and Jeju Island. Rain will fall in southern Jeollanam-do until the morning, the Gyeongnam region (excluding the inland northwest of Gyeongnam) until the day, and Jeju Island until the afternoon. The expected rainfall is around 5 mm in southern Jeollanam-do, 5 to 10 mm in Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam, and 5 to 20 mm in Jeju Island.

View full text: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261019003500034