SEOUL, 8 July 2016 ? Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul S. Hernandez was invited as the only non-Korean judge at the 2016 Miss Korea Pageant held at the at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Hall on Friday, 8 July 2016.

Pageant organizer Hankook Ilbo, and sister paper The Korea Times, one of the nation’s top English-language newspapers, invited Ambassador Hernandez to pick the winner from 34 finalists, together with 11 Korean judges, including 2002 Miss Korea Keum Na-na, Han Yoon-hee, President of MBC Plus, and Prof. Seo Yoon-hee of Ewha Womans University. Kim Jin-sol, 24, an undergraduate student at Sookmyung Women’s University, was chosen as Miss Korea at a three-hour program aired live on cable TV channels MBC Plus and MBC every1 as a special commemorative show for the beauty contest’s 60th anniversary this year. Apart from Keum Na-na, who earned a degree in biochemistry in 2008 and a doctorate degree in nutrition and epidemiology in 2015, both at Harvard University, other prominent Miss Korea winners were 1987 winner Jang Yoon-jeong, who was the first runner-up of Miss Universe 1988, and 2006 winner Lee Hanui, who was third runner-up of Miss Universe 2007. The jury included Yoo Jae-sin, Vice President of the Gwangju Sports Council, Choi Tae-ji, Director of the Asia Culture Institute, Park Myung-sung, Chief Director of the Korea Musical Theater Association, Grace Moon, President of JM Inspired Design USA, Lee Jong-seok, President of DreamT Entertainment, and Jang Seong-hyeok, Director of pageant franchise holder Hanju E&M. The first Miss Korea competition was sponsored by Hankook Ilbo, one of the country’s leading dailies, in 1957. Traditionally, the top three winners represented Korea in the Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth pageants. In 2015, Hanju E&M took over the Miss Korea Organization. This year, Miss Korea will no longer represent the country in the Miss Universe Pageant. ? END?