South Korean pro-equality party chief sacked for sexual harassment
- Kim Jong-cheol was stripped of his position as chairman of the Justice Party, which is the third-largest in the South Korean parliament
- He is the latest male politician to be brought down by an abuse case in the socially conservative and traditionally patriarchal country
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Kim Jong-cheol was chairman of the Justice Party, which with six representatives is the third-largest in the South Korean parliament, and was stripped of his position after admitting harassing Jang Hye-yeong, the party said in a statement.
He is the latest male politician to be brought down by an abuse case in the socially conservative and traditionally patriarchal country, where victims have long faced pressure to remain silent.
Jang, 33, was elected last year and is among South Korea’s youngest MPs.
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The incident happened following a dinner last month, and the party mounted an investigation after Jang reported it three days later.
“This is blatant sexual harassment without a doubt,” deputy leader Bae Bok-ju told reporters.
“Kim, the perpetrator, has also acknowledged all allegations.”
I decided to make this public and hold him accountable because I believed doing so would restore my dignity
South Korea remains male-dominated despite its economic and technological advances, and sexual abuse victims often face stigma, discouraging them from coming forward.
But the country has seen a widespread #MeToo movement in the last few years, sparked by a prosecutor who publicly accused a superior of groping her at a funeral.
In a statement Jang said the incident gave her “an enormous sense of shock and suffering”, involving “someone I deeply trusted as a political ally and with whom I campaigned together against sex crimes”.
“I decided to make this public and hold him accountable because I believed doing so would restore my dignity and pave a path for me to return to normal life,” she said, in comments lauded on social media.
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Kim admitted he “made physical contacts that the victim neither wanted nor consented to and committed clear sexual harassment”.
“This was an act that could not be excused and caused great harm to her,” he said in a statement, offering her his “deepest apology”.
Others include former provincial governor Ahn Hee-jung, who sought the presidency in 2017 but was jailed for three and a half years for sexual intercourse by abuse of authority after his female assistant accused him of repeatedly raping her.
