Korea Times Politics & City Reporter
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.
Military equipment and vehicles are seen at the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, when Korea and the U.S. began a nine-day combined military exercise. The allies are mainly conducting scaled down computer-simulated drills without outdoor exercises due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yonhap
Kim Young-choon, the Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) candidate for the Busan mayoral by-election, makes a deep bow at the Busan Metropolitan Council building, Monday to apologize to Busan citizens for the by-election being held due to misconduct by a former DPK member, former Mayor Oh Keo-don who resigned in April 2020 following sexual harassment allegations. Yonhap
The Jindo Dog Theme Park on Jin Island, South Jeolla Province, has been receiving criticisms recently over the park's treatment of its dogs which some claim are being abused. / Screen captured from Jindo County OfficeBy Bahk Eun-jiAnimal-related commercial projects and festivals across the country have faced growing backlash from residents and activists who want to protect animal rights as well as the environment. The Jindo Dog Theme Park on Jin Island, South Jeolla Province, has come under fire with claims of animal abuse.An online petition was filed on the Cheong Wa Dae website, March 4, calling for the shutdown of the park, a renowned tourist attraction on the island where the Jindo, a Korean dog breed, is said to have originated.The petitioner said these dogs are sensitive to loud noises, and forcing them to perform in shows at the park in front of audiences is an act of animal abuse. “The park has a Jindo dog race they call entertainment, but is also abuse. At the show, the dogs have to run with a muzzle on, and this makes it difficult for them to control their body temper
A video capture from an Instagram user shows a Korean security officer kicking a plastic bag with food and yelling at female workers at a shoe factory in Indonesia. Screen capture from InstagramBy Bahk Eun-jiA video clip of a Korean security officer behaving aggressively toward local female workers at a Korean shoe factory in Indonesia has spread on social media. According to some Indonesian news sources and social media posts, the video was filmed inside a shoe factory of Taekwang Industrial in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, March 4. In the clip, a Korean man wearing a mask rants at the women and points at the floor and kicks a bag of food where female factory workers were sitting.The man then puts his hands on his waist and continues to shout at the workers.Regarding the clip, criticism mounted among internet users in Indonesia, who said Korean staff at factories should not resort to violence against Indonesian employees in this way, and should be subject to discipline over the abuse.False rumors also spread that the Korean man kicked one of the female workers.Some workers there rep
Magnolias blossom on the campus of Yeungjin College in Daegu, Thursday, a day before “Gyeongchip,” a day traditionally said to be when frogs and insects awake from hibernation. Yonhap
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRC) decided that parents' monitoring of their children's smartphone usage could be a violation of human rights. GettyimagesbankBy Bahk Eun-jiKim Jung-eun, 49, an office worker living in Nowon District in Seoul, found her 12-year-old daughter was participating in eight anonymous group chats when she checked the girl's web history on her smartphone. In the group chats, participants who were mostly teenagers like her daughter talked about how to buy cigarettes and beer while some even shared their experiences running away from home.Kim immediately installed an app on her daughter's smartphone which allows parents to remotely monitor which apps their children use and to limit the time of use.Lee Hae-mi, 47, a mother of a fourth grader in Seoul's Gwangjin District, installed a similar app recently on her son's smartphone, shortly after she found her son to have searched for information about suicide on an internet portal site.“Then I read text messages he exchanged with friends in a number of group chats. I couldn't believe elementary
People take part in a protest against anti-Asian hate crimes in San Mateo, Calif., Feb. 27. Xinhua-YonhapKorean American congresswoman leading resolution to condemn racist hate crimesBy Bahk Eun-jiAsian American communities in the United States are living in a heightened state of anxiety as hate-fueled attacks against them have soared since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have originated in China. Reports of assaults have been growing lately, including ones against Korean Americans, and a bipartisan move has been made to condemn such attacks as racist hate crimes.According to U.S. media, a Korean American man in his 20s was attacked by two men when he was walking down a Koreatown street, Feb. 16. The man, Denny Kim, said the two men used hateful and racist language such as “Chinese virus” and assaulted him, pushing him to the ground. He suffered a broken nose and a black eye.After the incident, the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles posted a notice on its website, Feb. 25, urging people to pay extra attention to guard ag
Pedestrians walk in downtown Seoul, Feb. 7. Seoul's population fell below 10 million last year, for the first time since 1998. Korea Times photo by Hong In-kiBy Bahk Eun-jiSeoul saw its population drop to under 10 million for the first time in 32 years, according to the city administration, Wednesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said the number of residents in the capital stood at 9.91 million as of the end of 2020, down 99,895 from 10.01 million a year earlier, and falling below 10 million for the first time since 1988. Among them, 9.66 million were Korean nationals and 242,623 were foreign residents.Seoul's population had been continually increasing until the early 1990s due to the influx of residents following the country rapid industrialization, but decreased gradually after peaking at 10.97 million in 1992.The declining trend was attributable to the development of new satellite cities in Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital, which were designed to solve problems stemming from overcrowding and soaring housing prices in Seoul, as well as addressing the nation's low birt
A medical worker prepares to give a shot of COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Gwangju, Tuesday. YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiWhether or not to increase the number of doses per vial for COVID-19 vaccines with a new type of syringe has caused confusion for medical workers, as the authorities have been taking an ambiguous stance on its use. Critics say the government has caused confusion while trying to promote the domestically developed syringe as one of Korea's many unique responses to the pandemic.According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Tuesday, discussions are to be held with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the issue of using a low dead space (LDS) syringe, which minimizes the dead space between the hub and the needle.There are two coronavirus vaccines currently in use in Korea ― manufactured by AstraZeneca and Pfizer. The AstraZeneca vaccine can be administered to 10 people per vial, and the Pfizer one to six people per vial, but if an LDS syringe is used, the number of vaccine shots per vial can be increased to up to 12 and seven, respectively. The cont
By Bahk Eun-jiA 33-year-old woman was found guilty of breaking self-quarantine, Monday, but a local court handed down a lighter-than-usual sentence as she did so to visit her dying father.The Cheongju District Court fined the woman 1.5 million won ($1,332).GettyimagesbankThe woman was required to self-isolate for two weeks upon her arrival from the United States, April 24 last year, but she left her home the next day to visit a hospital where her father had been hospitalized due to cancer, after she heard he was in critical condition. She had tested negative when she took a coronavirus test at the airport.The next day, Cheongju City Government filed a complaint with the police against the woman for violating the self-isolation rule, after confirming the violation through a GPS tracking system.“(Knowing that she did so to meet her father) we felt bad to file the complaint, but we had to do so due to regulations,” an official of the Cheongju Public Health Center said. The father died six days after her visit. While the maximum punishment for violating self-quarantine is a f