(Seoul) The mayor of Seoul, long regarded as a potential candidate for the presidential election in South Korea and whose body was found Friday in the mountains, seems to have committed suicide after being accused of eve of sexual harassment.
Published on 10 July 2020 at 6 a.m. 21 Updated at 7 a.m. 45
Sunghee Hwang
France Media Agency
Park Won-soon, whose body was discovered on Friday morning on the northern outskirts of Seoul, is the country's highest political official to be involved in a sexual harassment case.
In a South Korean society that has remained deeply patriarchal, the #metoo world movement, against violence against women, has brought down dozens of eminent male figures in all fields in the past two years.
In a handwritten message with ink and a brush, found in his official residence and made public, Park Won-soon, 64 years, made a very general apology.
“I am sorry for everyone. I am sorry for my family, who have done nothing but cause pain, “he wrote, without referring to the charges brought against him by his former secretary.
He “sexually harassed me and made inappropriate gestures during working hours”, insisting in particular that she join him in the bedroom adjoining his office, she said, according to a document presenting his statement to the police, transmitted to AFP from sources close to the file.
After work, said the one who had been his personal secretary since 2015, he sent her via messaging “self-portraits of him in underwear accompanied by obscene comments”.
The police simply confirmed the filing of the complaint.
Paradoxically, Park Won-soon had become known over the years especially for his actions in defense of women, and publicly qualified as a feminist.
Emblematic figure of the Democratic Party (center left) in power, he has since led 2011 the gigantic capital of South Korea, which has approximately 10 Million people, almost a fifth of the country's population.
Whoever did not hide his desire to succeed President Moon Jae-in in 2022 had won three elections in advocating for gender and social equality.
PHOTO RYU YOUNG-SUCK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The body was discovered Friday morning on the northern outskirts of Seoul.
Close the debate
Protestant student imprisoned a few months during the time of the Park Chung-hee dictatorship (murdered late 1979), Park Won-soon later became a lawyer engaged in the fight for respect for human rights, defending as such many political activists in the years 80 and 90.
He notably won in 1988 a very followed trial in which he represented a young activist on the left who had been sexually tortured by police.
A decade later, he won what was widely recognized as the first trial for sexual harassment at work, a practice which until then had hardly been considered illegal in a society then extremely sexist.
Her suicide puts an end not only to the prosecutions but also to any possibility of debate on the issue, underline experts and feminists.
“Almost all South Korean men, whatever their political orientation, remain very traditional in their personal attitude towards women,” Lee Soo-yeon, a researcher, told AFP. from the Korean Institute for the Development of the Position of Women.
And politicians “present themselves as feminists if they think that it will help their career, but do not imagine that the way they treat women in their private life can also be important”, he said. she added.
The case of the mayor of Seoul shows “an individual failure but also of his political party,” said for his part a Harvard researcher, Keung Yoon Bae.
“Misogyny, as well as blindness in this matter, has a long history in the Korean left. It is time for her to tackle it, “she told AFP.
Park's death means that he leaves “with all the honors and status of his position”, while giving no chance to his accuser to confront him in court, regretted a feminist activist, Yun Dan -woo.
“It's a way to silence her” and to close the debate. There will always be the idea that she may have just lied, she added.
Despite a remarkable industrial boom, South Korean society remains very patriarchal today but signs of change have appeared since 2018, with several harassment trials.
The most resounding case is that of Ahn Hee-jung, candidate for the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidential, and condemned last year for having “had sexual relations by abusing his authority”.
