Victim raps director Kim for sexual harassment, demands punishment

SEOUL: Film director Kim Ki-duk’s alleged assault and coercion of an actress into an unscripted sex scene constitute sexual harassment and are a severe violation of human rights, a group representing the victim said on Tuesday.

The joint group — consisting of a women’s rights group, legal representatives and film workers’ groups — that represents an actress who has filed charges against Kim held a joint press conference in Seoul, denouncing Kim and urging measures to prevent further violation of human rights.

Lee Myung-sook, head of the Korea Women’s Human Rights Centre, said the actress is adamant against receiving any compensation from Kim because she does not want people to think she is taking action for the money.

The actress recently filed charges against Kim for physical assault and trying to force her to shoot a sex scene that had not been agreed upon during the shooting of Moebius in 2013.

Kim admitted to the assault, but said he was just coaching her in acting the scene. He denied accusations related to the sex scene. The director added that he would apologise if a staff member from the movie testified to the incident.

“Is this a case where (the accuser) can just say he’s sorry and be done with it? The mere fact that Kim considers an apology to be adequate shows how idle he is in dealing with this case,” said Lee. “He has to be held liable, legally.”

Lee Soo-jung, a professor of criminal psychology at Gyeonggi University, said that coercing the actress to shoot a sex scene — which she rejected — is just as big a problem as the physical assault.

“Although this is a clear case of sexual harassment, there is little awareness of such crimes as it is not outright sexual assault. Many victims of such cases in Korea tend to hold in their pain without telling anyone,” she said during the press conference. “These kinds of sexual harassment happen frequently and across all fields, but Korea lacks a system to punish such acts.”