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Oh Young-jin

Korea Times Korea Time Reporter

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' publisher and president. He began to work at The Korea Times in 1988 as a sports writer. Then, he worked as a reporter and later as editor at the City Desk, Business Desk and Politics Desk. He worked as chief editorial writer before taking the current position. He has a keen interest in politics as well as defense affairs.

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Opinion

Why not Asian for Iron Man for change?

BTS YonhapBy Oh Young-jin Does Iron Man have to be Robert Downey Jr. or Captain America Chris Evans? Why can't BTS' s RM stand in for Downey or Hong Kong Canadian Henry Lau, a K-pop musician, for Evans?Or can't Andy Lau play Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury (alas, he is out in the latest Avengers franchise: Endgame)? Just in case you still don't get it, my case is about Asians in the cast of superheroes and villains in “Endgame” or, more precisely, the lack thereof. A look at the main lineup of the “Endgame” cast on Google captures the point.The lineup of 34 breaks down to 23 males ― 18 Caucasian, three black and two Asians; and 11 females ― three black and no Asians. In other words, 26 out of the total or 76 percent are white, while blacks account for 18 percent and Asians a mere 5 percent. The two Asian actors are Benedict Wong, an English actor with Chinese roots, and Akihiro Haga, a Japanese actor. I don't remember what role Haga plays in “Endgame,” a fact that tells of the “weight” of his part. Avengers: EndgameWong, the assistant to&ldq

May 10, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Why not Asian for Iron Man for change?
Politics

Reporter at center of national attention for being 'rude'to president

KBS reporter Song Hyeon-jeong asks a question to President Moon Jae-in during a TV interview on Thursday. Screengrab of KBS By Oh Young-jin KBS reporter Song Hyeon-jeong is taking a great deal of flak for her alleged lack of respect during a televised one-on-one interview with President Moon Jae-in on Thursday night.Such is the controversy that Song has found herself in the crosshairs of ideological warfare between the liberals and conservatives, pushing the story to the top 10 on news portal Naver. Song occasionally cut President Moon in mid-sentence when he showed signs of procrastinating during the 86-minute live interview aired on the state-run channel. She also quoted the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party calling the liberal president a "dictator" for his alleged role in the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's fast-track action on Moon's key campaign pledge to establish an anti-corruption agency targeting high-ranking public servants. Moon supporters f

May 10, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Reporter at center of national attention for being 'rude'to president
Entertainment

JYP is so uncool: losing identity and loyalty

Park Jin-young or JYP is an artistic genius who appears so engrossed in the bottom line of his franchise as to give up loyalty to his charges and his identity. Courtesy of JYP GalleryBy Oh Young-jinPark Jin-young is an artistic genius and excellent businessman. Park's JYP Entertainment (initials of his name) is one of the two remaining pillars supporting the nation's K-pop franchise.YG, the third, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self for the unfolding scandal over Seungri of its top gig, BIG BANG,, while Big Hit Entertainment has only BTS (I know only BTS should be more than enough) to show for its business sustainability.But the 47-year-old singer of such hot sexy hits as “Elevator” (1995) and incubator of g.o.d., an early generation K-pop pacemaker, and Wonder Girls, doesn't have the guts to speak for himself, his gig and, more importantly, his charges. Recently, Sana, one of the three Japanese members of the popular girl group, TWICE, got hammered for "innocuous" comments she posted on instagram marking the changeover of her country's monarchs. Neither Park

May 3, 2019By Oh Young-jin
JYP is so uncool: losing identity and loyalty
Law & Crime

Ex-TVXQ member Park may have suffered addict's meth 'bug'

Singer-actor Park Yoo-chun is escorted into the Gyeonggi Police Precinct for questioning on April 30. Korea TimesBy Oh Young-jin There is speculation that singer-actor Park Yoo-chun is not just a recreational user of crystal meth but an addict.According to reports, pictures of the former member of the best-selling band TVXQ, ― taken in 2017 ― appeared in some online communities showing deep scratches and scabs on his arms and legs. Park then explained that the injuries were the result of a weakened immune system caused by stress. But some netizens suspect they were caused by picking and scratching that is typical of meth addicts who are troubled by hallucinatory meth “bugs,” feeling crawling sensations on their skin as part of withdrawal effects. Park publicly denied recently that he had never used drugs but made a confession after he tested positive. Gyeonggi police said when it sought an arrest warrant for him April 23 that Park had purchased 1.5 grams of methamphetamine on three occasions with his ex-girlfriend, the granddaughter of the founder of Namyang Dairy Product

May 1, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Ex-TVXQ member Park may have suffered addict's meth 'bug'
K-pop

Korean fans slam TWICE member for comments on Japanese reign changeover

Sana, one of the three Japanese TWICE membersBy Oh Young-jin Sana, a Japanese member of Korea's JYP agency's nine-member girl band TWICE, is in hot water for comments on the changeover of her country's ceremonial head of state. The Japanese call the holder of the throne emperor, while Koreans, still rankled by its 36-year colonial occupation, call him a Japanese king. TWICE has three Japanese members ― Sana, Momo and Mina ― and was created to play to the key Japanese K-pop market. New Japanese Emperor Naruhito, whose reign is named “Reiwa,” or peaceful harmony. AP-YonhapThe trigger for the controversy was comments she posted in Japanese on the group's Instagram account. According to one translation, it says: "I was born in the Heisei era so am sad to see it end. I would say 'Good job' to Heisei. Toward the first day of the new Reiwa era, I will spend the last day of Heisei with a fresh mind." Heisei, meaning peaceful prosperity, represented the 20-year reign of Akihito that started in 1989. He relinquished the throne to his son, Naruhito, whose reign is named Reiwa, or pe

May 1, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Korean fans slam TWICE member for comments on Japanese reign changeover
Entertainment

Big fireworks display on Lotte Tower Saturday

Fireworks on the Lotte World Towerat its opening in April 2017. Korea TimesBy Oh Young-jin Do not be alarmed when you hear big explosions and fire from the sky over southern Seoul Saturday. They will probably be part of fireworks organized by Lotte on its 123-story tower in a wish for peace on the Korean Peninsula.The firework starts at 8 p.m. and will last for 11 minutes and 50 seconds, about 30 seconds longer than the display in 2017 for the opening of the tower. The organizers were quoted as saying they were choreographing a spectacular scene that resembles a dragon making a serpentine way around the building. Taipei 101 has a firework show that lasts about 5five to six minutes, while Dubai's 163-story Burj Khalifa's fireworks display lasts three to nine minutes. This makes Lotte's fireworks show the world's longest to be hosted by a building. Hanhwa's show is larger in size because it takes about 35 minutes to shoot 100,000 shots to embroider the night skies with all kinds of patterns. The Hanwha show is scheduled for October along the Han River. A worker checks fireworks on the

Apr 30, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Big fireworks display on Lotte Tower Saturday
Economy

VIDEO Foreign investors look to South Korea for guidance on North Korea

John Walker, chairman of Macquarie Korea, gesticulates during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulBy Oh Young-jin The story about Macquarie's logo sounds like one about the egg of Columbus. The Italian explorer was the first westerner to discover the Americas, and how he made an egg stand is one of the best known stories about him.Although not so well known, Macquarie's coin shares the same spirit of ingenuity ― when short of coins, Macquarie, an early Australian leader, imported 40,000 coins and punched holes in them, making two coins out of one ― the Holey and the Dump ― to produce 80,000. John Walker may have used much of that Macquarie spirit, when he came to Korea 21 years ago to set up the Korean operation of the world's largest infrastructure asset manager. Under Walker, the operation has grown, covering extensive portfolios ranging infrastructure to securities.Now Walker's Macquarie may be looking at another big opportunity in North Korea, a nation with a great deal of natural resources at the crossroads of China, South Korea, Japan an

Apr 30, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Foreign investors look to South Korea for guidance on North Korea [VIDEO]
Opinion

Let me introduce Korea's next president

Yoo Jae-seok is a comedian extraordinaire, respected and well mannered. YonhapBy Oh Young-jin Don't we fancy having a president, who is not a professional politician or former Army general but a comic like Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly elected Ukrainian head of state? Throw in a Cabinet of funny guys and an entertainer as National Assembly speaker and chances are that there would be more things to laugh at than now. Considering the current political stalemate that gets nothing done and makes life stressful for everybody, the alternative ― a comic cast of government leaders ― could prove tempting. Of course, there is no question that the incumbent president's tenure is respected and protected. Suggesting otherwise would be a disruption to the constitutional order and an act of sedition. The Ukrainian president-elect swept to a landslide victory, a no-confidence vote by voters for the familiar faces of the nation's political landscape. Zelesky plays the role of history teacher becoming president by accident after his classroom anti-corruption rants are filmed by a student on a smartpho

Apr 26, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Let me introduce Korea's next president
Entertainment

Rapper Iron praises marijuana as 'a god's gift'

Footage from YouTube shows rapper Iron praising marijuana while doing community service as part of a penalty for beating up his girlfriend and smoking pot.By Oh Young-jin Rapper Iron is in trouble again for praising marijuana. The rapper, a contestant in the competition "Show Me the Money," was sentenced to eight months' jail, suspended for two years, and 80 hours of community service for beating up his girlfriend and smoking pot. In a recent video on a YouTube channel, which captured him giving a helping hand at a facility for the handicapped, the rapper, 27, showed regret about hurting his girlfriend and lying in self-defense. But he showed no remorse about his use of marijuana."Crystal meth (methamphetamine) should be banned,” he said. “But marijuana, which grows in nature, should not. It is herbal medicine and a god's gift."It is banned because of issues such as tax and people's misunderstanding."But I want to promote marijuana, and improving its public image is the role hip hop has to play."

Apr 26, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Rapper Iron praises marijuana as 'a god's gift'
Politics

Speaker shocked by #metoo allegation, needs surgery

Lawmakers of the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party demand National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang step down for allegedly sexually harassing female lawmaker. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-hanBy Oh Young-jin National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang was transferred to Seoul National Hospital and was to undergo surgery, his office said Friday. Moon checked into the Catholic University of Korea Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital Wednesday suffering from high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat. The politician, 74, found himself in the middle of a partisan fight over a fast-tracked bill on establishing an agency responsible for investigating corruption by those in high office. Moon touched a female lawmaker on her cheeks when she blocked him in a melee at his office, triggering cries of sexual harassment from women lawmakers. Moon's office said he showed symptoms of being in shock from a low blood sugar level and was told by the medical staff to go to hospital. His spokesmen declined to reveal his conditions, citing confidentiality about the health of heads of the three branches of gove

Apr 26, 2019By Oh Young-jin
Speaker shocked by #metoo allegation, needs surgery
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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.