By Yun Suh-young

The main host of a popular podcast “Naneun Ggomsuda” (I’m a petty trickster) said Saturday that the controversial comments made by himself and two other co-hosts on “bikini support” from their female fans did not constitute sexual harassment.

Kim Ou-joon, the head host of the political podcast, also known as “Naggomsu,” said during a meeting with his fans at Seoul’s Mapo Art Center that their comments were “not sexual harassment, nor were they intended to be.”

It is the first time for Kim to publicly address the issue which had triggered fierce debates on the Internet for several weeks amid growing pressure from women’s rights groups that they apologize for their “sexually-harassing” comments.

Kim said that in order for the comments to be sexually harassing, inequality of power must exist.

“The woman who uploaded the picture must feel like she would be disadvantaged if she said she was sexually humiliated. However, the woman did not feel that way and we don’t have the power to suppress her from saying it. Therefore, sexual harassment did not take place,” he said.

Kim made it clear that they would not retract or regret the comments. “The right to express a political opinion using one’s body should be recognized,” he said.

The show’s three hosts had called for participation last month from women to send photos of themselves wearing bikinis in support of the “pitiful colleague who is suppressing his sexual desires in prison.”

One of the show’s hosts, Chung Bong-ju, is currently serving a one-year jail term for spreading false rumors about President Lee Myung-bak during the 2007 campaign.

The request was made after a woman uploaded a picture of herself in a bikini on the online club campaigning for Chung’s release. She wrote on her breast, “I want Chung out to the point of my breasts exploding.”

Upon the hosts’ request to continue on the campaign, several other women also uploaded their bikini pictures.

The three hosts even warned Chung to “be careful not to get a nosebleed (from sexual arousal)” during their visit to him in prison.

One male photographer also uploaded a photo of his nude body on the online club calling for Chung’s release saying that “the days of depicting women’s femininity through bikinis is over. That’s too childish. We fight in our own way.”

The controversy is showing no signs of abating as a senior female reporter from MBC joined in the rally and uploaded a bikini photo of herself on Twitter last Friday with the comment: “I call for the release of Chung to the point of my breasts shrinking.”

Regarding the main host Kim’s explanation Saturday, reactions were mixed. Some Twitter users lamented the fact that Kim had to give an explanation to something that could be laughed over, whereas others responded the lack of apology is rueful.