By Kim Se-jeong
Police are investigating a Saenuri Party lawmaker for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room.
Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency officials said Sunday that the woman, 48, an insurance agent, has lodged a report.
The lawmaker’s name and constituency have been withheld, with police only saying he is based in North Gyeongsang Province.
The woman claimed that the lawmaker called her several times, asking her to come to his hotel room in Daegu on July 13. When she arrived, he stripped off her clothes and raped her, she claimed. She said the lawmaker put 300,000 won in cash in her purse.
Surveillance camera recordings show the lawmaker checking in at the hotel and the woman going into and coming out of the hotel. Police also have records of phone calls between the two.
Police said the woman changed her testimony when she was questioned a second time on July 27, saying the sexual relationship was against her will, but she had not resisted “hard enough.”
Because she changed her testimony, police will look into the case further before deciding whether to question the lawmaker.
The lawmaker has denied the allegation, telling Yonhap News Agency that the police have already cleared him. However, police said they are still investigating.
If police want to arrest the lawmaker, they will need consent from the National Assembly.
Saenuri Party officials said they were collecting facts about the situation.
If the allegation is found to be true, it will deal a serious blow to the party’s morality and image.
It is not the first time that members of the ruling party have been involved in sexual misconduct.
Pocheon Mayor Seo Jang-won, a party member, was arrested and sentenced to 10 months in prison for sexually abusing a woman at his office last September, and later offering her 90 million won to cover up the incident.
Earlier this year, former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae, an adviser to the Saenuri Party, was sentenced to six months’ jail, suspended for one year, for sexually harassing a female caddie, 24, at a golf club. Park, 77, was accused of touching the woman last September.
In 2010, Kang Yong-suk, a former lawmaker, made sexual remarks about female television news hosts, and the party expelled him. A group of news anchorwomen filed a defamation suit against him.