Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Gym teacher at USFK base sentenced for smuggling narcotic painkillers
By Bahk Eun-ji
A gym teacher at an army base of the United States in Korea has received a suspended jail term for smuggling more than 400 pills of two narcotic painkillers, morphine and oxycodone, into the country in a chocolate box.
The Incheon District Court said, Wednesday, that it had sentenced the man in his 50s to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the law on drug management.
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By Bahk Eun-ji
The man was indicted on charges of smuggling chocolate boxes containing 435 pills of morphine and oxycodone by international express mail through Incheon International Airport at 8:43 a.m. last year Dec. 17.
Oxycodone is an opioid medication to help relieve severe pain.
The court pointed out that his charges are not light, as drug-related crimes not only damage people's physical and mental health, but also have serious adverse effects on society, such as harming public health and causing other crimes.
However, the reason for handing down the suspended jail term was that he has no criminal history in Korea and seems to have purchased the pills for medical purposes only.