The Borneo Post (Sabah)

S. Korean left-wing party chief sacked for sexual harassment

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SEOUL: The head of a left-wing South Korean political party that has championed gender equality was sacked Monday for sexually harassing one of his own MPs, a prominent rights campaigner.

Kim Jong-Cheol was chairman of the Justice Party, which with six representa­tives is the third-largest in the South Korean parliament, and was stripped of his position after admitting harassing Jang Hye-yeong, the party said in a statement.

He is the latest male politician to be brought down by an abuse case in the socially conservati­ve and traditiona­lly patriarcha­l country, where victims have long faced pressure to remain silent.

Jang, 33, was elected last year and is among South Korea’s youngest MPs.

She is known for her human rights activism and drew up an anti-discrimina­tion bill last year that would ban favouritis­m based on sex, race, age, sexual orientatio­n, disability or religion, but has yet to be put to a vote.

The incident happened following a dinner last month, and the party mounted an investigat­ion after Jang reported it three days later.

“This is blatant sexual harassment without a doubt,” deputy leader Bae Bok-ju told reporters.

“Kim, the perpetrato­r, has also acknowledg­ed all allegation­s.”

South Korea remains maledomina­ted despite its economic and technologi­cal advances, and sexual abuse victims often face stigma, discouragi­ng them from coming forward. But the country has seen a widespread #MeToo movement in the last few years, sparked by a prosecutor who publicly accused a superior of groping her at a funeral.

In a statement Jang said the incident gave her “an enormous sense of shock and suffering”, involving “someone I deeply trusted as a political ally and with whom I campaigned together against sex crimes”.

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Kim JongCheol

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