In the past two years, political stars of South Korea's ruling party "Common Democratic Party" have frequently broken out sexual harassment scandals, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who is regarded as Moon Jae-in's successor, is suspected of being caught up in the sexual harassment of female secretaries scandal, another presidential successor, Chungcheongnam-do governor Ahn Hee-jeong is serving a prison sentence for sexually assaulting female secretaries four times, and Busan Mayor Oh Ju-dun also resigned due to sex scandals. Why are there so many sex scandals in South Korean politics?
Accused of sexual harassment by a female secretary
Seen as a popular candidate for the next president
The 64-year-old, a human rights lawyer by training, passed the judicial examination in 1980 and graduated from the Judicial Training Institute in 1982, and is a classmate of the current president, Moon Jae-in, and the two have known each other for nearly 40 years. Park Won-soon, the longest-serving mayor of Seoul in South Korean history, is seen as a popular candidate for the next South Korean president, with the opportunity to take over Moon Jae-in's presidential bid in 2022.
According to South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo, as the old mayor of Seoul for three consecutive terms and a popular candidate for South Korea's next president, the bad news of Park Won-soon's death shocked the South Korean political scene. On 9 July, he committed suicide with his last words, suspected of being accused of sexual harassment by a former female secretary. Sadly, a human rights lawyer who won the first sexual harassment lawsuit in South Korea's judicial history in 1998, he did not expect to be caught up in a sexual harassment scandal.
Police said mayor Park Won-soon's former female secretary A called the police to say she had been sexually harassed and filed a complaint. A came to the police station with his lawyer on the evening of the 8th to be investigated until the early morning of the 9th. Park Won-soon learned of the sexual harassment complaint filed by the former secretary with the police on the evening of the 8th. On the morning of the 9th, he cancelled all trips on the grounds that he was unwell.
A, who has been Park Won-soon's secretary since 2017, accused Park Ofon-soon of sexually harassing him by using her position since 2017. She was pulled by Park Won-soon into the lounge of the office to get her hands on it, and after work, she would receive indecent photos and texts of Park Won-soon wearing only underwear through the communication software Telegram, and would be asked to take pictures and pass them to Park Won-soon. A has submitted the above contents as evidence to the police.
In view of the seriousness of the case, the seoul police commissioner made an urgent report to his superiors overnight on the evening of the 8th, and the police have prepared to make arrangements for the date of summoning Park Won-soon according to the acceptance of the situation. However, Seoul police said they had not yet confirmed whether the allegations of the female secretary were true, but because the suspect was dead, prosecutors would not prosecute the case on the grounds that they had no right of prosecution.
Self-reported sexual harassment of female civil servants
Forced by female civil servants to resign
Oh, 72, is a close confidant of President Moon Jae-in and a political star within South Korea's ruling Party, the Common Democratic Party. He began to work in busan after passing the administrative examination in 1973, served as minister of marine and fisheries from 2005 to 2006, and was elected mayor of Busan in local elections in 2018. He was expelled from the party after resigning in connection with a sex scandal and is currently in a lawsuit with lawsuits still ongoing.
On the morning of April 23, while the whole country was busy fighting the epidemic, Busan Mayor Oh Ju-dun suddenly held an emergency press conference to announce his resignation, and his resignation was based on the fact that he had sexually harassed female civil servants and resigned. Why did Wu Judun explode sexual harassment? At about 11:40 a.m. on April 7, Wu Judun called a female civil servant in her 20s who belonged to the Busan city government to her office on the 7th floor, according to South Korea's "Nationalities Daily." He then made physical contact with the female civil servant on the pretext of consulting on computer problems. Although the female civil servant strongly resisted, Wu Judun once insulted her for about 5 minutes. After the incident, Wu Judun mobilized people around her to try to persuade the female civil servant not to report the incident, and promised to meet any of her requests. The female civil servant told Wu Judun directly that if he did not resign before April 30, she would hold a press conference to expose the fact that he had sexually disturbed him. Therefore, Wu Judun suddenly announced his resignation on April 23.
Due to Wu Judun's resignation, the position of mayor of Busan will be replaced by the deputy administrative mayor. Busan city is expected to hold a mayoral by-election in April 2021, which also means that the mayor's position will face a one-year window.
4 sexual assaults on female secretaries
Moon's "confidant" was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison
Ahn Hee is a political star in South Korean politics, known as Moon Jae-in's "confidant", he was elected governor of Chungcheongnam-do in 2010, re-elected in 2014, and competed with Moon Jae-in for the party nomination in the 2017 presidential election.
In March 2018, Ahn Hee-jeong, then governor of Chungcheongnam-do Province, was forced to resign on suspicion of sexually assaulting a female secretary and was expelled from the party, thus ruining his political career. An Hee-jeong hired 33-year-old Kim Ji-eun to join the team as his secretary in August 2018. However, Kim Ji-eun revealed on public shows that he had been sexually assaulted by Ahn Hee-jeong 4 times since he was hired, and An Hee-jeong often sexually harassed her. On the same morning that Kim ji-un exposed sexual harassment, Ahn Hee-jong publicly expressed support for the #MeToo# movement. Subsequently, Ahn Hee-jong announced his resignation and stopped all political activities. In September 2019, South Korea's Supreme Court handed down the final verdict in the sexual assault case of Ahn Hee-jeong, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and is currently serving a sentence.
On July 5, Ahn Hee-jong was temporarily released from prison to attend to his mother's funeral, and Moon Jae-in, in the name of the president of the Republic of Korea, gave a wreath of condolences to the president of the Republic of Korea, causing dissatisfaction and was criticized for using political power to shield sexual assault offenders.
The #MeToo# movement caused an uproar
The woman accused several officials of being ousted from power on charges of sexual assault
In recent years, sexual harassment scandals have been frequently reported in South Korean politics, and sex scandals have become a political curse. In March 2018, Min Byeong-woo, a member of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party and a candidate for mayor of Seoul, also resigned for his involvement in a sexual harassment scandal.
In recent years, the #MeToo # movement (anti-sexual harassment movement) has set off an uproar in South Korea, with many women coming forward to make sexual assault allegations against a number of men with high reputation, including directors, politicians, professors and former national team coaches, many of whom apologized and left their jobs, and some of whom faced criminal charges. Moon Jae-in has publicly expressed his support for the #MeToo# movement, but it is particularly ironic that three prominent local chiefs in his party have been exposed to sex scandals one after another.
In 2018, a female prosecutor in South Korea launched the #MeToo# campaign to report sexual assault. At the time, female prosecutor Xu Zhixian publicly accused a justice department official of insulting her at a funeral in 2010, which the official has denied. Xu Zhixian's public victimization experience has evolved into a campaign to report sexual crimes, including the legal department official An Taigen, who attacked Xu Zhixian, the playwright Lee Runze, and the actor Wu Daxiu have all been exposed to sex scandals. Huashang Daily reporter Guo Ji