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| Former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don, leaves a press conference in Busan City Hall, Thursday, after admitting to sexually harassing a female employee. / Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
Police in Busan began an investigation Friday into an accusation of sexual harassment against former Mayor Oh Keo-don, who stepped down the previous day after admitting culpability.
In a surprise press conference Thursday, Oh said, "I made inappropriate physical contact in a recent meeting with a civil servant that lasted for five minutes. I realized that it was an indecent assault. I bow my head and offer an apology for my actions."
Oh has since disappeared, following the press conference, and the police are looking into his whereabouts. Officers said they were also assessing another claim of harassment.
According to local media reports, that incident took place earlier this month in his office. The victim, also a city government employee, was asked by Oh's personal secretary to visit the mayor during office hours. When she got there, he asked her to sit on his chair and teach him how to use a computer.
Oh reportedly groped the employee for almost five minutes despite her resistance. After leaving his office, the victim contacted the Busan Sexual Violence Relief Center for help. The center and the victim pressed Oh to resign which he agreed to do but asked if they would allow him to wait until after the April 15 general election.
The center said Friday that the victim was still in shock and hasn't decided about what legal action to take.
"She is in too difficult a situation now to know what to do. She needs time first, and then will decide on legal action. What the victim wanted first was to see Oh gone so she could go back to work and carry on with her normal life. Legal action will be decided on afterwards," Lee Jae-hee, the center's director, said, adding that the victim was suffering additionally from malicious commentators spreading unverified rumors online.
The former mayor also faced a sexual harassment accusation in 2018 during his election campaign, when a Youtuber accused Oh of harassing a female campaign staff member. Oh later sued the YouTuber for defamation.
The latest incident comes as society is still reeling from a digital sexual abuse and exploitation case involving young women and some underage girls. Cho Ju-bin was indicted on charges of blackmailing the women to make sexually explicit videos and distributing them to Telegram chat rooms to male clients who paid for access.
The case is expected to aggravate outrage among many women in Korea who have been complaining about society's and the judiciary's lenient approach to sex crimes.
"Oh's office is much more dangerous than the chatroom on Telegram messenger," one commentator wrote on the Naver web portal.
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