![]() |
A protester reads texts during a rally demanding justice for public Prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun, who alleged she had been harassed by her senior supervisor, in front of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office, Thursday. #MeToo is written in the back of the paper, with the Korean sentence saying "You're are not alone." / Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
A female prosecutor's harassment accusation against her former senior supervisor has been igniting the #MeToo movement here and gaining support from people from all walks of life.
Seo Ji-hyun, the prosecutor at the Tongyeong branch of the southeastern Changwon District Prosecutors' Office, has drawn support from her fellow prosecutors and lawmakers after she went public with allegations that she was groped by Ahn Tae-geun, a former senior prosecutor, at a funeral in 2010.
Beside messages of support from citizens on social media, 225 prosecutors issued a statement supporting Seo.
"We demand the truth be told about the sexual harassment allegations brought up by Seo. We also call for further investigations to find other victims," the statement said.
"Seo shouldn't suffer any setbacks from her revelation. To prevent this happening anymore, the prosecution must think about what has gone wrong and correct it."
They also apologized to Seo. "It is hard to imagine what she has gone through for the last eight years. We are sorry that we have not helped her. But we'll help from now on."
Judges joined the wave of messages. Moon Yoo-seok, a judge at the Seoul Eastern District Court, proposed a "Me First" movement on his Facebook page. "It takes one person to say one word to stop the offender. That's what we need now. I will try to be that person."
Kim Jae-ryeon, Seo's legal representative, said despite a wide range of support for her, some of her colleagues are still attempting to discredit her client with false claims that she had gone public to gain a better position within the prosecution or to enter into politics.
The growing support for the campaign demonstrates prevalent sexual misconduct underneath the socially conservative Korea and the suppression of victims speaking out about injustice.
Many wonder if this will trigger a full scale #MeToo movement beyond the prosecution.
The movement started last year in the U.S. with Hollywood actresses speaking out about alleged sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein, an influential film producer. It spread out across the U.S. and Europe.
On Tuesday, a lawyer detailed in an interview with SBS TV her alleged harassment by senior supervisors. On Thursday, the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, also featured a female lawyer who claimed prevalent sexual misconduct by her senior colleagues and supervisors at the Judiciary Research and Training Institute.
"I decided to speak out because I know some people think Seo is a strange woman. But she's not. It can happen to anyone. It happened to me also," she said.
In the meantime, Cho Hee-jin, 56, head of a special investigation team set up by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, pledged to unearth the truth behind the allegations.
Cho, the current chief of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, told reporters Thursday that she will soon launch the investigation team in which experts from outside the prosecution will participate.
"We will form a team including people from the private sector," she said. "I will do the utmost to reveal the truth as a prosecutor and as a civil servant."
On Monday, Seo detailed what had happened to her during an interview with JTBC News, a prime time program.
"At a funeral service in 2010, a senior prosecutor who sat next to me continuously groped my waist and buttocks," Seo said during the live interview. "I couldn't say anything because the justice minister was there. I only tried to distance myself from him."
She said many senior prosecutors were aware of what was going on but no one said anything to stop him.
Later, she wanted an apology from Ahn but he never gave her one. Instead, she claimed she had been punished in her career for demanding the apology.
Ahn said he didn't remember what had happened, but also denied that Seo was discriminated against because she asked for an apology.