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.
Skepticism grows over city's determination to investigate late mayor
Seoul Metropolitan Government spokesman Hwang In-sik speaks during a press conference at City Hall in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Civic activists are expressing doubts over Seoul Metropolitan Government's pledge to uncover the truth about the sexual harassment allegations made against the late Mayor Park Won-soon, made by his former secretary.
The city government held its first official press conference about the allegations, Wednesday, six days after Park's suicide, vowing to create an investigative team with outside experts to “thoroughly reveal the truth.” However, questions about the details of the investigation, including how and when it will take place went unanswered, with Seoul Metropolitan Government spokesman Hwang In-sik claiming that answers could cause “secondary damage” to the former secretary.
“If you look at the city government's response, it seems that they still don't know who they have to investigate. Appointments to the investigation team should be done by the Ministry of Public Administration or the National Human Rights Commission, which have the right to audit external agencies,” said Bae Bok-joo, a former head of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center.
Likewise, the selection of members for the investigation team will be another contentious issue. Hwang said “The investigative team will include women's rights, human rights and law experts from outside the city government,” in the briefing, but the participants will be selected by the city, leading to questions over bias.
Experts and activists criticized the city, claiming it has come up with ambiguous measures merely to avoid public criticism, and doubted the internal investigation will have any tangible outcome to help the alleged victim. The internal team will not have the investigative prerogatives of the police or the prosecution. As a result, anyone the team wants to question regarding the allegations can easily refuse.
In addition, a high-ranking official in the secretariat office reportedly ignored the victim when she asked her colleagues and superiors for help regarding the sexual harassment in 2016; but a large number of staffers, including those she reported the situation to, were replaced by the former mayor in April. The scope of the investigation was broadened to those who have worked in the secretariat for the past four years.
According to the victim's lawyer, city officials were aware of her situation, and she asked her colleagues for help, but the office she worked in did nothing to assist her. However, the city government strongly denied knowing anything about the allegations against Park, and said they would have investigated the case earlier if they had been made aware.
Regarding the issue, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it would create viable countermeasures to deal with elected high-ranking officials committing sexual crimes.
“Basically, we have created and distributed sexual harassment manuals in the workplace, including public institutions, but there are limitations to the response if such sexual crimes are committed by the head of a local government or an elected official. We are going to come up with follow-up measures for this,” said gender ministry official Hwang Yoon-jung in a regular briefing at the Government Complex in Seoul.
A manual for handling cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence involving the heads of public institutions was first introduced in 2018. But the definition of public institution was ambiguous, meaning it was difficult to apply appropriate measures equally, depending on whether the head was elected or appointed to a public corporation by the central government.
The ministry is currently checking whether the city government will provide education to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence, and plans to conduct on-site inspections if necessary.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office plans to launch a full-fledged investigation into the alleged leak of the complaint filed against the former mayor.
Earlier this week, a number of civic groups filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office against Cheong Wa Dae and the National Police Agency, alleging an official from one of them leaked the information about the sexual harassment complaint to Park.