Lee Hae-chan Finally Issues Official Apology... Truth Investigation Passed to Seoul City

"Great disappointment and administrative vacuum occurred
Taking responsibility as the Democratic Party leader"
Proposed strengthening gender sensitivity education and revising party rules
Fact-finding to be handed over to Seoul City

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] On the 15th, Lee Hae-chan, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, officially apologized regarding the sexual harassment accusation against the late former Mayor Park Won-soon. This came six days after Mayor Park's death. However, the investigation into the facts appears to be shifted to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, where the incident occurred, rather than being handled at the party level.

Lee Hae-chan directly apologizes to the accuser of Park Won-soon

At the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, Lee said, "I offer my deep condolences to the pain experienced by the accuser and, as the leader of the Democratic Party, I once again express my sincere apology," adding, "I deeply regret causing great disappointment to the public and acknowledge responsibility for the administrative vacuum that occurred."

The fact-finding investigation was delegated to the Seoul Metropolitan Government rather than the party. Lee stated, "I offer my deep condolences to the pain experienced by the accuser," and "I hope that Seoul City will thoroughly clarify the circumstances of the incident according to the wishes of the accuser." He added, "The Democratic Party has firmly upheld a victim-centered approach. While it is natural to investigate the facts from the victim's perspective, I ask for understanding that a realistic investigation by the party is difficult due to the absence of the deceased."

As a countermeasure, he proposed revising the party's constitution and regulations to strengthen gender-sensitivity education. Lee said, "The Democratic Party will prepare extreme measures to block inappropriate behavior by party-affiliated public officials and to establish discipline." In this apology, he did not mention 'former Mayor Park' even once. There was also no particular comment regarding the controversy over abusive language toward reporters.

Democratic Party spokesperson Song Gap-seok also told reporters after the meeting, "It is practically impossible to conduct a fact-finding investigation within the party," and added, "I hesitate to say whether it is appropriate for the party to listen to the opinions of involved parties under the name of an investigation."

The Democratic Party's apology seems to reflect awareness of criticism both inside and outside the party for showing a 'lukewarm attitude' and public opinion. On the 14th, female lawmakers of the Democratic Party issued a statement urging a fact-finding investigation at the Seoul City level and an urgent inspection of sexual misconduct within the party. Lawmaker Kim Hae-young demanded an apology and countermeasures while the party's position was not yet decided, and Lawmaker Park Yong-jin continued to make principled remarks urging a fact-finding investigation at the party level rather than Seoul City.

Public opinion was also strong. Realmeter announced on the 15th that, based on a survey commissioned by OhmyNews regarding the necessity of a fact-finding investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against former Mayor Park, 64.4% responded that an investigation was necessary. The survey contacted 16,579 adults nationwide aged 18 and over, with a final 1,000 respondents completing the survey, recording a response rate of 6.1%. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

As countermeasures, the Democratic Party proposed revising the party constitution and regulations to strengthen gender-sensitivity education and establishing an organization to inspect and respond to sexual misconduct within the party. There is also a proposal to conduct ongoing monitoring of elected officials affiliated with the Democratic Party. Specific details are expected to be announced around the 20th.

Spokesperson Song said, "Until now, gender-sensitivity education was conducted once before elections, but there may be a plan to regularize it to once a year and strengthen education by including it in the party constitution," adding, "I think it will be organized and ready to be announced around next Monday."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.