my timesThe Korea Times
ejb

Bahk Eun-ji

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.

Go to Email

Read more

World

Netanyahu courts Arab voters in election-year turnabout

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a coronavirus vaccination facility in the northern Arab city of Nazareth, Israel, Jan. 13. AP-YonhapNetanyahu, who has spent much of his long career casting Israel's Arab minority as a potential fifth column led by terrorist sympathizers, is now openly courting their support as he seeks reelection in the country's fourth vote in less than two years.Few Arabs are likely to heed his call, underscoring the desperation of Netanyahu's political somersault. But the relative absence of incitement against the community in this campaign and the potential breakup of an Arab party alliance could dampen turnout _ to Netanyahu's advantage. He might even pick up just enough votes to swing a tight election.Either way, Netanyahu's overtures have shaken up the Arab community. The Joint List, an alliance of Arab parties that secured a record 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset last March, is riven by a dispute over whether it should work with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud at a time when less objectionable center-left parties are in disarray.Its demise wou

Jan 20, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Netanyahu courts Arab voters in election-year turnabout
Health

Burned-out nurses calling for extra staff

Members of the Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union hold a press conference in front of City Hall in Seoul, Tuesday, to call on the government to increase the number of nurses at the city government-run Boramae Hospital. YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiAfter a year of battling COVID-19 in Korea, nurses and other medical workers are feeling the strain of the extra workload, calling on the central and local governments to increase the number of hospital staff.The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union (KHMWU) has been staging protests to call for proper action.“The government was praised for its disease control work, but nurses are suffering from a shortage of staff, despite their continuous calls for adequate measures,” the union head Na Sun-ja said in a press conference in front of Seoul City Hall, Tuesday.Na said nurses are struggling to look after the surging number of patients, as the health authorities hastily increase the number of hospital beds at facilities without increasing the number of medical workers. “The head of the Boramae Hospital still regards the medical

Jan 20, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Burned-out nurses calling for extra staff
  • New virus cases hover around 400 for third day
  • USFK struggling with increasing COVID-19 cases
Law & Crime

Calls growing for better system to prevent child abuse

Photos of Jung-in, a 16-month-old girl who died after being abused by her adoptive parents, sit in front of her grave at a cemetery in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Jan. 13. YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiThe death of a 16-month-old girl following abuse by her adoptive parents has fueled a nationwide call to improve systems protecting children from abuse.Experts point out that the country needs better coordination between police and public servants or private organization workers in charge of monitoring child abuse, to supplement the lack of authority of social workers and a lack of understanding of child abuse among police officers. The girl, named Jung-in, died in October in a hospital emergency room in western Seoul after arriving there with bruises, fractures and severe organ damage.The National Forensic Service concluded that the baby died of serious internal bleeding from her organs caused by external force, with severe injuries to her pancreas and a torn mesentery. Her adoptive parents face a number of charges including child abuse, and during the first trial last week, prosecutors adde

Jan 19, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Calls growing for better system to prevent child abuse
Health

Unnecessary random testing causes burden for quarantine work

Public servants of Gyeonggi Provincial Government and its affiliates line up for coronavirus tests at a makeshift testing center set up at the provincial government building compound in Suwon, Wednesday. YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiAs the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic drags on, more and more local governments, institutions and companies are urging residents and employees to get tested.Although the move is aimed at preventing the spread of infection in advance, some point out that it is inefficient to conduct random tests for all residents or all workers regardless of whether they have been in contact with the virus. It is also a concern that mass testing will increase the workload for quarantine workers and waste administrative costs.Seocho District Office in Seoul has been offering free tests for its 430,000 residents since Dec. 29. As of Friday, about 50,000 residents have been tested, and another 50,000 people who come to Seocho regularly for work also received tests.The Seoul Metropolitan Government and quarantine authorities showed a negative response to the district office's mass tes

Jan 15, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Unnecessary random testing causes burden for quarantine work
  • COVID-19 cases in 500s for 6th day; tougher curbs partially eased
Law & Crime

Open chat rooms become breeding ground for criminal activity

Concern is growing here over open chat rooms encouraging various criminal acts such as brutal animal abuse and sexual exploitation of minors. GettyimagesbankBy Bahk Eun-jiConcerns are growing over open chat rooms in which users show and encourage various criminal acts such as brutal animal abuse and the sexual exploitation of minors.Many have called for stricter regulation of such digital spaces and harsher punishments for those who take advantage of their anonymity to encourage and also perpetrate crimes, but some also worry that freedom of expression could be overly suppressed in the process. According to Seongdong Police Station, Wednesday, an investigation to identify certain chat room participants was recently launched after the Korean Animal Welfare Association filed a complaint with the police.In an open online chat room named “Gore Professionals” on KakaoTalk, the nation's most popular mobile messenger app, anonymous users reportedly shared pictures and videos that showed stray cats being brutally tortured and killed. A petition posted on the presidential office's

Jan 13, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Open chat rooms become breeding ground for criminal activity
Society

Yeoju sets benchmark for free COVID-19 tests for residents

Quarantine workers prepare to conduct coronavirus tests at the Nightingale Center, a makeshift testing facility at Yeoju Detention Center in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Yeoju City GovernmentBy Bahk Eun-jiLocal government officials in Yeoju, a small city located around 65 kilometers east of Seoul, have been trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among its 115,000 residents by providing quick polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for free. Yeoju is the first local government here to do so.Since December when the third wave of COVID-19 infections began, the city government has offered the test which takes only about an hour from specimen collection to diagnosis.It started a pilot operation of the free testing by setting up a temporary testing facility called Nightingale Center, named after Florence Nightingale, and has expanded the project to establish more centers at 10 locations across the city.The testing centers were set up to conduct preemptive diagnostic tests to find asymptomatic virus carriers. More than 19,000 Yeoju residents, or around 17 percent of the city

Jan 12, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Yeoju sets benchmark for free COVID-19 tests for residents
Society

Bosingak bell-ringing ceremony becomes Seoul's 'future heritage' for January

This undated photo shows the annual bell-ringing ceremony being performed by dignitaries at Bosingak Pavilion in Seoul. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan GovernmentBy Bahk Eun-jiThe country has held a bell-ringing ceremony to ring in the New Year at Bosingak Pavilion in central Seoul every year, with more than 100,000 people gathering there to celebrate.This year, however, the ceremony was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first cancellation since the tradition began in 1953. The event was replaced with a video that was pre-recorded. But still the bell ringing remains special to the people, especially Seoul citizens, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government added the Bosingak bell-ringing ceremony to the Seoul Future Heritage list recently.Since 2013, the city government has designated 488 buildings, sites and even non-physical cultural assets as “future heritage” that are historically and culturally significant enough to be preserved and handed down to future generations. The city government said the bell-ringing ceremony is a representative New Year's event that has

Jan 12, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Bosingak bell-ringing ceremony becomes Seoul's 'future heritage' for January
Health

Has Korea passed peak of 3rd wave of COVID-19?

A person enters a makeshift COVID-19 testing clinic in central Seoul, Sunday. YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiDaily new COVID-19 cases remained at the 600 mark here for Sunday, the third consecutive day, with government officials commenting that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has appeared to have passed its peak.Considering the potential for localized infections and the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, however, many are calling for caution against such premature optimism.“I am cautiously saying that I think the third pandemic wave has passed its peak,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a National Assembly plenary session Friday. “The number of daily new COVID-19 cases is on the decline and the reproduction rate has stayed slightly below 1 over the past week,” Chung said. In fact, the daily caseload, which had soared to nearly 1,200 per day, has been in the 600 range for three consecutive days of the last seven ― a clear sign that it could be abating. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the nation reported 665 more COVID

Jan 10, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Has Korea passed peak of 3rd wave of COVID-19?
Law & Crime

Police detain mother of 3-year-old over child abuse

By Bahk Eun-jiPolice have launched an investigation after a three-year-old girl was found outside her house without sufficient clothing Friday, during the ongoing recent cold snap in Seoul. Gangbuk Police Station said Sunday that they have detained the girl's mother on charges of child abandonment and neglect.gettyimagesbankAccording to police, they received a report at around 5:40 p.m. that a girl was seen on the street, near a convenience store close to her place of residence.The temperature in Seoul dropped to minus 11 degrees Celsius, Friday, with a wind chill factor taking it to minus 17 degrees, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).When she was found by a passerby, she asked for help and said she hadn't eaten anything all day. The three-year-old had been at home for about nine hours after her mother went to work in the morning. She went outside for a minute and accidentally locked herself out of the house. Officers immediately took the three-year-old girl into care before sending her to a close relative rather than a welfare facility.They said it was assum

Jan 10, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Police detain mother of 3-year-old over child abuse
Health

Central, local governments hit over gender insensitivity

Pregnancy and childbirth information on a website run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government has been criticized for stereotyped gender perception. Captured from internetBy Bahk Eun-jiThe central and local governments have been criticized for their outdated perception of gender roles, after the city government published content related to pregnancy that was found to contain a number of statements readers found to be discriminatory. The Seoul Metropolitan Government opened a website, “Pregnancy and childbirth information center,” in 2019, to provide information on pregnancy, childbirth and relevant services provided by the city government.However, some of the information on the website about pregnancy implied that only women are responsible for housework and childcare.In the “preparation during end-of-pregnancy” section, the website said a woman who is likely to deliver a baby in a couple of weeks needs to prepare side dishes so her husband can eat while she is away from home after giving birth, as she has to spend days or weeks in hospital or at a postnatal care

Jan 6, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Central, local governments hit over gender insensitivity
previous page
7374757677
next page

Top 5 stories

Korea Times
About Us
Introduction
History
Contact Us
Products & Services
Subscribe
E-paper
RSS Service
Content Sales
Site Map
Policy
Code of Ethics
Ombudsman
Privacy Policy
Youth Protection Policy
Terms of Service
Copyright Policy
Family Site
Hankookilbo
Dongwha Group
FacebookXYoutubeInstagram
CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.