SEOUL, South Korea – Seoul city council officials said on Wednesday they would create a joint investigative team with women’s groups and legal and human rights experts to investigate allegations that Mayor Park Won-had soon sexually abused a secretary. for four years.
Team members will have no power to subpoena or accuse those they want to question because Park, 64, committed suicide on Thursday, a day after the secretary filed a complaint against him to the police. By law, the criminal case against Mr. Park was automatically closed after his death.
But women’s rights activists, as well as the unidentified secretary, who spoke to the media through her lawyer, have called for an investigation even if prosecutors cannot press charges against Park.
In a poll conducted by Realmeter the day after Park’s funeral on Monday, more than 64 percent of respondents said they considered an investigation necessary, the company said Wednesday.
“The most important thing is to find the truth,” said Hwang In-sik, a spokesman for the city of Seoul, during a press conference on Wednesday, where he announced the investigation into the events.
But Mr. Hwang indicated that investigators could ask the City Council for disciplinary action or even request that the police begin a formal investigation if they find sufficient incriminating evidence against any City Council official other than Mr. Park.
In addition to the allegations of sexual harassment by the secretary, investigators will investigate when and through whom Park first learned of her secretary’s complaint to police. Women’s rights activists have said the presentation leaked to Mr. Park, giving him the opportunity to potentially destroy the evidence before he died of suicide.
They also said that the secretary’s initial appeals to city officials for help had been ignored as officials tried to protect Mr. Park’s reputation.
“I am so overwhelmed that I can barely find a word to say to people,” Lee Hae-chan, head of the Democratic Party, said Wednesday of the allegations against the late mayor. “Once again I say we feel sorry for the people.”
Mr. Park’s suicide, as well as the allegations against him, have dominated news headlines in South Korea for several days. As mayor of Seoul, a city of 10 million, Mr. Park was the second most powerful elected official in South Korea, credited with making the city safer and more woman-friendly, and often cited as a possible presidential candidate. .
Before becoming mayor, Mr. Park had been one of the country’s leading human rights attorneys, defending women’s rights throughout his career and winning the country’s first sexual harassment case.
The accusations against Park were also a severe blow to President Moon Jae-in’s ruling liberal Democratic Party, of which Park had been a member. Two other party members have recently become the focus of the #MeToo movement.
In April, Oh Keo-don, the mayor of Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, admitted sexual misconduct and resigned after a public servant accused him of sexually assaulting her in his office.
In 2018, Ahn Hee-jung, a rising star in Moon’s party and a presidential candidate, resigned as governor of South Chungcheong province after his secretary appeared on television to accuse him of having repeatedly sexually assaulted her. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on rape charges.
