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Jun Ji-hye

Korea Times Finance Reporter

Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.

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South Korea

Assembly passes bill for anti-smoking photos

By Jun Ji-hye The National Assembly passed a pending bill to force tobacco makers to print warning photos on cigarette packs at the end of an extraordinary session Friday.Under the approved revision to the National Health Promotion Act, photo warnings will become mandatory after an 18-month grace period.The photos must account for more than 30 percent of the front and rear of the cigarette packs. Warning photos and phrases together should occupy more than 50 percent.Cigarette firms violating the law would face up to 10 million won in fines and the loss of their business licenses, while executives would face up to a year in jail.The bill was originally expected to be approved in February, but foundered before the vote as some lawmakers argued that making warning photos obligatory would be a violation of the rights of smokers.Rival lawmakers managed to pass the bill this time following the agreement to include a new phrase into the revision that “the warning photos should be based on facts and should not be too disturbing.”The move to push for anti-smoking photos came

May 29, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

USFK mum for anthrax tests here

Concerns grew at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday after United States Forces Korea announced that an investigation into potential exposure to anthrax is underway. This followed a statement by the Pentagon that a U.S. military lab in Utah accidently shipped at least one live sample of anthrax bacterium to South Korea. It added that no-one has so far shown any signs of infection. / YonhapBy Jun Ji-hyeAnthrax bacteria / AP-YonhapQuestions have arisen about why United States Forces Korea (USFK) has established a lab at Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, and carried out anthrax culture experiments there.The existence of the lab, believed to be on operation for a considerable amount of time, became known to the public on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Defense announced mistakes in anthrax delivery.It said that a U.S. military lab in Dugway, Utah, accidently shipped at least one sample of live anthrax to labs in nine states across the country, as well as to that of USFK.In a separate press release, the USFK said 22 people at the air base may have been exposed to a

May 28, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

US Navy leader in Korea newly appointed

By Jun Ji-hyeCapt. William D. ByrneCapt. William D. Byrne Jr., currently serving as the commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy, has been assigned to lead the U.S. Navy in Korea after being selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half), the Pentagon said Tuesday.Byrne is to be replaced by Marine Col. Stephen Liszewski, an Annapolis native who graduated from the academy in 1990, and will coordinate between U.S. naval forces and those of South Korea.Byrne, who was born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Pacifica, Calif., graduated from the Naval Academy with a B.S. in Political Science in 1987.He then received a M.A. in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 2004.He became the academy’s 85th commandant in May 2013.His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation and Achievement Medals and various unit and service awards, according to the academy.His name can be found numerous times in the Navy football records as he was a three-year starting quarterbac

May 27, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
US Navy leader in Korea newly appointed
South Korea

NPAD innovation chief declares end to factional disputes

Kim Sang-gon, the head of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) task force committee to overhaul the party, speaks during a news conference in the National Assembly, Wednesday. / YonhapBy Jun Ji-hyeKim Sang-gon, head of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD)’s task force for innovation, appealed to members of the main opposition party to end a long-running factional feud.“From now on, dominance of a certain faction will not exist in the NPAD,” Kim told a news conference at the National Assembly Wednesday. “I urge party members to stop meetings of factional members.”The former Gyeonggi Province education superintendent has been leading ad-hoc efforts to settle in-house discord in the wake of a crushing defeat in the April 29 by-elections.  Kim stressed that he will not condone any individuals or groups who stand in the way of the committee’s activities.“The NPAD has failed to create the future because greedy members who only work for the advantages of their factions have ruined the party,” he said. &

May 27, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
NPAD innovation chief declares end to factional disputes
South Korea

North building military base on border island

By Jun Ji-hyeNorth Korea is building military facilities on a border island in the West Sea that defense authorities believe will house 122-millimeter multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).Kim Min-seok, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, said at a regular press briefing, Tuesday, that the North is building several bunker-shaped camps on Gal Island located just 4.5 kilometers away from the South’s Yeonpyeong Island.“We understand that the North is still constructing them,” he said.“The ministry is paying keen attention to Pyongyang’s actions there including the deployment of weapons. This is because such a base will pose a severe threat to defense operations of the South Korean military, considering the location of Gal Island and the distance between Yeonpyeong Island and the Northern Limit Line (NLL).”The NLL is the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border, and the North Korean island is located just above it.The analysis by the military authorities concluded that the isolated state would either deploy 122-mm MLRS or use it as an o

May 26, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

Saenuri set to conduct primary to choose budget chief today

By Jun Ji-hye The ruling Saenuri Party is set to conduct the first-ever primary to select a National Assembly budget chief today as two hopefuls, Reps. Kim Jae-kyung and Joo Ho-young, are showing no sign of concession.The chairmanship of the Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts has usually been given to a lawmaker of the governing party in accordance with the consensus of rival parties.It has been conventional to choose the final candidate through consultation among the party members before sending the appointment motion to the plenary session for a full vote.But the in-house primary seems unavoidable this time as Kim and Joo, representing Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province and Daegu, respectively, are asking each another to make a concession.The party leadership has been arbitrating, apparently wary of deepening political infighting within the party as both regions are traditional strongholds for the party.Chairman Kim Moo-sung and floor leader Yoo Seong-min suggested a compromise that the person who gives up the chairmanship of the budget committee assumes

May 25, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

Japanese oppose bigger military

By Jun Ji-hye The majority of Japanese people oppose a legislative drive by the Shinzo Abe administration to push through a set of bills that would provide its military forces with the right to exercise collective self-defense.According to a survey jointly conducted from Friday to Sunday by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and TV Tokyo, 55 percent of respondents opposed the passage of the bills, while only 25 percent supported it.Regarding the potential overseas activities of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, 44 percent oppose it, while 41 percent are in favor.    An overwhelming 73 percent don’t agree with Abe’s argument that Japan will never get caught up in wars alongside the United States even if Tokyo amends the relevant laws. Only 15 percent accept Abe’s claim.The Abe administration has been pushing for passage of 10 relevant revisions through the Diet to enable Japanese forces to exercise self-defense. And one bill features an international peace law that would allow the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces overseas.Collective self-defense is the righ

May 25, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

No clear consensus on future of NK sanctions

By Jun Ji-hyeThere appears to be no consensus on whether to lift the May 24 measures the government slapped on North Korea after its torpedo attack on the Navy’s frigate Cheonan in the West Sea five years ago.Supporters of lifting the sanctions claim that it is time to move on from the tragedy which killed 46 sailors, saying the measures have had no effect on the North.The biggest advocate of the status quo is the government.“The government’s position has not changed that the North should take responsible actions regarding the Cheonan incident before lifting the measures,” the Ministry of Unification said in a statement, Sunday. “Despite maintaining the sanctions, the government will constantly push for exchange and cooperation between the two sides.”  The stance coincides with a broader North Korea policy by the current administration that is based on a looser version of reciprocity, bequeathed from the previous Lee Myung-bak government.Ahn Chan-il, the head of the World North Korea Research Center, backed the government’s position.&ldq

May 24, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
No clear consensus on future of NK sanctions
South Korea

Int'l women activists cross DMZ for peace

By Jun Ji-hye About 30 women activists from around the world marched from the North to the South across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Sunday, anchoring their hope on helping establish everlasting peace on the divided Korean Peninsula.Those who participated in the event dubbed “Women Cross DMZ,” designed to mark International Women’s Day for Disarmament, included U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire and Leymah Gbowee.“We are feeling very positive (about) what we’ve accomplished ... which is a trip for peace, for reconciliation and for human rights and a trip to which both governments agreed,” Steinem told a press conference on arrival in the South. “We were able to be citizen diplomats.”She expressed hope that their peace march could be the beginning of contact across the “artificial barrier” and promote peace and understanding between the two Koreas.The DMZ is four kilometers wide and 250 kilometers long. It has kept the peninsula divided since the end of the 1950-

May 24, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
South Korea

'Bipartisan consensus crucial for unification'

By Jun Ji-hyeVolker RuheFormer German Defense Minister Volker Ruhe called on rival parties here to reach a core belief to overcome the division of the Korean Peninsula.Ruhe cited the need for such a consensus over unification though political infighting can be taken as the normal democratic process, and parties do not have to agree with every single step.“The division is unnatural and will be overcome. The Koreas should not be divided like this,” he said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Thursday, “You have to invest for the future of a unified Korea. Why not invest in a hospital in North Korea? The North may turn you down once or twice, but you should try to think about this. This is what we (Germany) did during the division.”Ruhe stressed that investing and spending money is not wasting money in a hostile state. Rather, it is an investment for the future of Korea.He also called on South Korea to use every opportunity to resume a dialogue and contact with Pyongyang.The Hamburg native served as the defense chief during the first government of

May 21, 2015By Jun Ji-hye
'Bipartisan consensus crucial for unification'
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