Kwon In-sook, a female pro-democracy activist in the mid-1980s, speaks after she was appointed to lead a probe into sexual harassment in the justice ministry. [Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL, Feb. 02 (Aju News) -- An emblematic female pro-democracy activist in the mid-1980s, known for making a public testimony that she was sexually tortured, was appointed Friday to lead an investigation into sexual harassment at immigration offices and other bodies under the jurisdiction of South Korea's justice ministry.
Kwon In-sook, 53, will head a special committee launched by Justice Minister Park Sang-ki to probe sexual harassment at all ministry departments but the prosecution, such as immigration and prison authorities.
The committee of outside experts followed a female prosecutor's #MeToo revelation that sparked a public outcry and prompted prosecutors to launch an internal inspection of sexual harassment and mistreatment of female employees in one of South Korea's most closed and hierarchical public organizations.
Prosecutors are digging into allegations that Seo Ji-hyeon was sexually harassed by a drunken senior prosecutor at a funeral attended by top justice ministry officials in October 2010. Seo argued that she had to shut up in fear of possible disadvantage in the workplace, revealing other cases of sexual harassment targeting female prosecutors.
"I can not but feel sorry for the pain that the prosecutor has suffered," the justice minister told reporters, admitting his office has not properly handled Seo's case.
Kwon, a U.S.-educated feminist scholar who heads the Korean Women's Development Institute, is known for her legal fight against military dictatorship in 1986 when she gave up her college study to stage an underground pro-union campaign as a factory worker. She was dragged into a police station for questioning and sexually abused by an officer.
Prosecutors dropped the case, and Kwon was jailed for 18 months for falsifying identification documents.
The "#MeToo" movement has exposed a slew of allegations against some of the world's most powerful men. However, it has gained little attention in South Korea, which has long been overshadowed by Confucian and conservative ideologies. High-profile figures and celebrities are reluctant to reveal personal experiences due to a different social culture.
"The essence of this case is not in what I was subjected to," Seo said in a fresh statement on Thursday. "The victim is not able to speak properly about sexual violence within the organization because of suspicions that there is a different intention."
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