Prosecution to probe diplomat's rape allegations

By Yi Whan-woo

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday it asked the prosecution to investigate its diplomat accused of sexually assaulting a female staff member at the Korean Embassy in Ethiopia.

It also said it will hold a disciplinary hearing separately next week to decide what punitive actions should be taken against the suspect. The ministry did not disclose further details about him.

The measures came after the internal oversight inspectors at the ministry questioned him from Thursday to Friday over allegations he raped a junior administrative staff member at the embassy, July 8.

“The proof we obtained and testimony from the victim were sufficient to prove the allegations of the suspect’s crime although he denied them all,” a ministry official said. “The ministry asked the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to look into him with the victim’s consent.”

Headed by First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam, the disciplinary committee will include deputy ministers and private experts.

The possible punishments are expulsion, relegation and suspension from jobs. The suspect can also be reprimanded or face a salary reduction as a lighter punishment.

The suspect allegedly invited the victim, a contract employee, out for dinner at a local restaurant for “helping him out” with his work.

They drank three bottles of wine at dinner before she passed out, was taken to the suspect’s home and was sexually assaulted, according to the ministry.

The suspect and the victim returned to Seoul on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively.

The case follows a series of sex offenses involving the ministry officials over the past few years despite the ministry’s zero tolerance policy of such offenses.

Calling the latest sexual assault case “deplorable,” Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha ordered the chiefs of all diplomatic missions abroad to seriously observe discipline about appropriate conduct.

She said she will also consider possible measures to tighten discipline throughout the ministry and at overseas diplomatic missions.