Abstract We report the observation of improved confinement discharge in the magnetic braking experiment in KSTAR tokamak. The improved confinement is achieved with reduced toroidal plasma rotation by non-axisymmetric magnetic field induced toroidal rotation braking along with significant reduction of ELMs.Modifications in multi-channel transport raise fast ion slowing-down time and improve neutral beam deposition, leading to improved fast ion confinement. We show that modifications of radial electric field and ExB shear flow by magnetic braking provoke enhanced pedestal to sustain thermal confinement against degradation in the typical 3D field experiment.