By Park Si-soo
Renowned novelist Park Bum-shin who wrote the original story for the controversial Korean erotic movie “Eun-gyo” has come under fire for alleged sexual harassment against female writers.
A Twitter user who introduced herself as a former book publisher wrote on Friday, “Park groped the body of a female writer who was sitting next to him and told sexually explicit jokes during a drinking party with female writers and his fans.”
The victim was one of seven or eight women at the party which was held several years ago, she said. She added that Park called a writer “young Eun-gyo” and another writer “old Eun-gyo,” referring to the name of the erotic film’s female protagonist, a school girl, who had a forbidden affair with a poet in his 70s in the movie.
“All of us felt humiliated by his remarks,” she said. She didn’t elaborate on why she is raising the issue now about an incident that happened years ago.
Amid controversy, Park said he was unable to recollect what happened during the meeting. “I don’t remember what happened,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “Perhaps they remember it better than I do. There is no clear way to check what happened and also I don’t feel the need to do so. Anyway I feel sorry that I made some people angry.”
Born in 1946, Park made his literary debut in 1973 with the short story “Remains of the Summer.” Nearly 20 films and TV dramas have been shot based on his work.