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Jung Min-ho

Korea Times Politics & City Reporter

Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.

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Sports

Park Sea-kyun wins Paralympic shooting gold

By Jung Min-ho Korean shooter Park Sea-kyun collected the country’s first gold medal of the 2012 London Paralympics in the men’s P1-10-meter air pistol at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Thursday. “I happened to be the first Korean gold medalist of the games, but I’m sure other athletes will achieve good results as well,” Park said. “I hope Korea will win many golds.” Turkey’s Korhan Yamac gained on the Korean as the shooters neared the end of their 10 turns. With only one shot left each, Park was just 0.5 point ahead on 654.9. Park hit 9.8 but Yamac’s 10.3 leveled the scores to force a sudden-death shoot off where Park’s 10.8 beat out the Turk’s 9.9. A perfect score is 10.9. “I wasn’t really expecting Yamac to chase me that far, (because the initial point gap was big),” Park said. “I was extremely nervous on the last shot, knowing that it would determine first and second.” Getting off to a decent start by hitting inside the 10-point mark twice, Park took the lead. Yamac then threatened Park’s dream to win Korea’s first gold at the Paralympics. Hitting the bull’s-eye

Aug 31, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

18U Baseball World Champs opens day late

By Jung Min-ho The six opening games of the IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship, scheduled for Thursday in Seoul, were delayed due to Typhoon Tembin but the event will begin today, the organizers said. The opening of the tournament for players under 18 was first delayed by an hour but the organizing committee decided to postpone all first-day games to Tuesday as the heavy rain continued. But today’s fixtures will go ahead as scheduled, as Korea begins its campaign for a sixth gold medal against Venezuela. It is the first time for Korea to host the event, and the nation’s young baseball talents are looking to compete with other global future prospects on a worldwide scale on their home turf. Organized by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), the 25th event since 1981 will run until Sept. 8. Korea, champions in 2006 and 2008, is seeking to repeat its previous triumphs in the nation’s capital. “All the team members are mentally and physically strong,” manager Lee Jeong-hoon said at a media conference on Wednesday. “We want to impress the fans through this

Aug 30, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Pro sports websites lack global touch

By Jung Min-ho Korea’s professional sports leagues have witnessed a meteoric rise in scale and fan base but are domestically oriented, forgoing their chance to market themselves globally and grow bigger. One example is their official websites that, with the exception of the Korea Football Association (KFA), either offer no foreign language services or poor translations. “Many foreigners, including myself, find it very difficult when visiting sports websites like those of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Korean Basketball League (KBL) and KFA because there are only a few that provide English services,” said John F. Behrend Jr., a resident of Daegu from the United States. “A vast majority of sports websites do not even have foreign language services at all, which creates a problem for those of us who want to read about the players and the teams in the different leagues.” According to the Korean Statistical Information Service, nearly 1 million foreigners currently reside in Korea but almost no sports website provides a proper language service for them, failing to tak

Aug 28, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Baseball fever heats up to break ticket record

By Jung Min-ho With 48,529 tickets sold for the Sunday’s games, the number of visitors to baseball stadiums this year hit 6 million and keeps shooting up with great force to crash last year’s record of 6,810,028. As of Monday, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has welcomed 6,046,019 fans to the arenas this season that started April. This is the second consecutive season the attendance figure has reached 6 million since the inception of professional baseball in Korea. It’s a positive development since the number had stood at over 5 million in the past five years. Despite this year’s record-high heat wave, the average of 14,430 fans visited stadiums for every game, which is nine percent higher than last year. Regarding the momentum, KBO predicts the number will easily surpass the 7-million-mark. Indisputably, the Seoul-based club Nexen Heroes have made a fine contribution to the popularity by drawing 524,565 fans to the home stadium in 55 games, showing 38 percent increase in the spectatorship from last year. Meanwhile, traditionally favored teams the Lotte Giants and

Aug 27, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Park plays key role to earn QPR’s first point

By Jung Min-ho Queens Park Rangers (QPR) earned their first point this season Saturday after a draw against Norwich City, thanks to captain Park Ji-sung’s great contribution to the lax defense line. Bouncing back from a humiliating 5-0 defeat against Swansea on Aug. 18, QPR secured their net at Carrow Road, only allowing one goal by Simeon Jackson, who headed home Anthony Pilkington’s cross in the 11th minute. Park played a key role in blocking City’s threatening offense in the center of midfield, supplying goal-chances to the front from time to time. QPR got back on terms with the home team as a striker Bobby Zamora leveled the game by firing in following Djibril Cisse’s penalty seven minutes later. “It was a game of few chances in fairness, but in terms of our organization and quality it was a vast improvement,” manager QPR Mark Hughes said on the team’s official website. “They utilized the threat of Holt very well in the first half, but I thought we improved defensively in the second half.” Entering the second match after a shocking defeat in the first one, Hughes mad

Aug 26, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Ki Sung-yueng joins Swansea

Ex-Celtic midfielder moves for $9.5 mil. By Jung Min-ho Korean footballer Ki Sung-yueng signed a three-year contract with Swansea City for a club-record fee to become the nation’s 10th English Premier League player Saturday (KST). “When I look at Swansea I see a club that is growing and growing, and the style here is very attractive to me,” Ki said. “I think I can grow as a player here and help the club move forward.” The 23-year-old cost Swansea a 6-million-pound ($9.5 million) transfer fee, which almost doubles the team’s record fee of 3.5 million pounds for Danny Graham a year ago, according to BBC. Swansea manager Michael Laudrup welcomed the 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist to the club and showed his great expectations for the new talent. “He’s an important player to have in midfield,” Laudrup was quoted as saying on BBC Sport. “We lost Joe Allen (to Liverpool) so it’s important, looking at the strength of the squad, to have a dynamic player like him. The players we have signed here and the players we will sign are players that can fit into our style. He’

Aug 26, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Cho demands KFA pay out contract

By Jung Min-ho Former national football team manager Cho Kwang-rae is demanding the Korea Football Association (KFA) pay him for the remainder of his contract despite being fired along with his coaching staff in December following a loss to Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier. The issue has arisen after the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) ruled Wednesday that the KFA has to pay Brazilian coach Alexandre Torreira da Gama Lima, for the seven months that were left on his contract even though he was fired with Cho. Both originally agreed to deals that were due to run until last month The ruling puts an end to an eight-month dispute between Gama and the KFA, and is expected to push the local football authority to also give Cho what he would have earned if he had remained in his post. Another three coaches recently agreed to accept four months pay after having their contracts terminated. The KFA initially refused to pay them anything, saying they have had jobs elsewhere but eventually reached a compromise. However, there is no sign of an agreement on this issue with

Aug 23, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

'Don't take medal from him'

By Jung Min-ho Olympic football team manager Hong Myung-bo said Wednesday that he believes beleaguered midfielder Park Jong-woo deserves his bronze medal. “He made a big contribution to the team’s achievement. As far as I am concerned, he deserves to be a bronze medalist and the medal ceremony should have been his moment to remember. But he never had the chance,” Hong said at a press conference in Seoul. At the conference, Hong expressed his disapproval of the way the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and Korea Football Association (KFA) have handled the issue of Park’s celebration at the London Games. The 23-year-old midfielder held up a sign that read “Dokdo is our land,” after Korea beat Japan 2-0 to win its first Olympic football medal on Aug. 11. Park was banned from attending the medal ceremony for the controversial act as it went against the International Olympic Committee charter that bars political statements. Dokdo is the name of Korea’s easternmost islets that Japan has long claimed ownership of despite the fact that they have been under the control of Korean po

Aug 22, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Octagon girls - beauty in world of beast

By Jung Min-ho It may be the beauty-and-the-beast role-playing psychology that draws fans to the brutal sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), making it one of the fastest-growing sports. Muscled men with crew cuts and gloves that only cover their knuckles play the beasts. The biggest MMA promoter, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has ranked No. 1 in pay-per-view revenue across the world over the past few years. The beauties, often scantily clad, show the next round with a big sign above their heads. They are “Octagon girls” named after the shape of the ring where the combat martial artists fight. Park Si-hyun, Lee A-rin, Ju Da-ha and Kim Ha-yul ― four Road FC octagon girls ― are not just pretty faces but part of a sophisticated sports machine that generate a great deal of revenue. “I believe the name Road FC has become my brand. Many people instantly recall Arianny Celeste when they think about UFC, and I want to be the name people instantly associate with Road FC,” Ju, 26, said. “I want to be successful as a promoter of both the organization and MMA.” In the a

Aug 21, 2012By Jung Min-ho
Sports

Yu-na to unveil new programs

By Jung Min-ho Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na said Monday that she will perform to an arrangement from hit musical “Les Miserables” and music from the 1963 film “Kiss of the Vampire” soundtrack for the 2012-13 season. “When I was looking for a song that is fresh and new, I liked David Wilson’s idea of vampires and decided to take it,” Kim Yu-na said. “I am also satisfied with the program for Les Miserables.” Choreographer Wilson has worked with Kim for the past six years. While “Kiss of the Vampire” is going to be an orchestral epic, the music from “Les Miserables” is expected to give her performance a more romantic feel. In addition to preparation for the regular season, the 21-year-old is going to participate in the “All That Skate Summer 2012” ice show, from Aug. 24 to 26 at the Olympic Gymnastic Arena. Kim will skate to “El Tango de Roxanne” from the 2001 movie “Moulin Rouge.” It was the accompaniment to her short program, setting a new world record of 71.95 when she was 16 that mesmerized figure skating fans around the globe at the 2007 World Champ

Aug 20, 2012By Jung Min-ho
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