Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Court clears ex-Seoul Phil chief of violence charges
By Bahk Eun-ji
Park Hyun-jung, former CEO of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO), was cleared of assault charges at an appellate court.
Park Hyun-jung /Korea Times file
By Bahk Eun-ji
An appeals' division at the Seoul Central District Court overturned a lower court ruling that acknowledged the charge and fined her 3 million won ($2,545).
She was accused of poking a female employee with her finger during a quarrel.
“The lower court recognized the charge based on the victim's testimony,” the court said. “But Park consistently denied she had poked the victim. And considering all factors, including the victim's attitude after the incident and changes in the victim's testimony, the evidence provided by the prosecution is insufficient to confirm the alleged assault took place.”
At the end of 2014, SPO employees claimed Park used abusive language toward them, managed the orchestra on her own, and sexually harassed male employees during a dinner session.
But the police concluded the workers made false claims to spread rumors about her and force her to step down, sending the case to the prosecution and asking it to indict the employees. Park also filed a complaint with the prosecution against three of them for defamation and false accusation.
In 2017, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office dropped the sexual harassment charges against Park citing a lack of evidence, and decided to charge her with assault only.