Seoul City Pulls Out Handover Document Card... Experts Say "Not Evidence"

Allegations of Aiding Sexual Harassment by City Officials
"Unaware Before Incident," They Claim
Victim's Written Document Submitted as Evidence
Includes Expressions Like 'A Special Life Experience'

Inclusion of Complaints in Official Documents Deemed Unreasonable
Representative Also Remarks "It's Nothing Serious"

On the morning of the 22nd, at a location in Seoul, the '2nd Press Conference on the Power Sexual Violence Case by the Mayor of Seoul' was held, attended by Kim Jae-ryeon, the lead attorney of On-Sesang Law Firm, along with other representatives of the victims. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporters Seungyun Song and Jeongyun Lee] Regarding the investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment neglect involving the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Seoul city officials are actively refuting the suspicions by submitting materials to the police stating that they "were not aware of the sexual harassment in advance." Among these, it is known that a "handover document" reportedly written directly by the victim has also been included as one piece of evidence. However, many view that the controversial handover document is unlikely to serve as decisive evidence denying the existence of sexual harassment.

Kim Jaeryeon, the victim's legal representative, said during a meeting with the press on the morning of the 29th, "The handover document itself does not seem to be something that can be used as evidence under criminal law," adding, "How could a document written for handing over duties to a successor contain content that would serve as evidence of innocence regarding neglect?"

The police are summoning and investigating Seoul city officials one by one in relation to the investigation of the neglect allegations against former Mayor Park. So far, about ten people have been questioned as witnesses, but no one has been formally charged yet. The police have also received and are reviewing various materials from them, including the handover document. The handover document, which the victim wrote in July last year for their successor, reportedly contains expressions such as "feeling pride as the mayor's secretary" and "a special experience that will never come again in life." It is understood that this material was submitted on the premise that Seoul city officials found it difficult to infer the existence of sexual harassment since the victim perceived former Mayor Park’s private contact as merely "pride" or an "experience."

However, experts believe that the handover document is unlikely to serve as evidence to resolve the allegations of neglect regarding sexual harassment. Lawyer Kim’s remark that the document is "nothing special" is interpreted in the same context. There is also an opinion that it would be more unreasonable for a handover document, which has a public nature, to include the victim’s sexual harassment experiences or grievances to pass on to the successor. Lawyer Lee Eun-ui of Lee Eun-ui Law Office said, "It is natural to submit evidence favorable to oneself as grounds for claiming ignorance of the victimization," but analyzed, "However, this itself is difficult to interpret as evidence that the victimization did not occur." Lawyer Shin Min-young of Yehyun Law Firm also said, "In cases involving sexual issues influenced by power dynamics, there are sometimes instances where victims appear to defend the perpetrator, but using this as grounds to deny the victimization itself is unreasonable."

In the future investigation process, the key will be whether it is possible to confirm circumstances where the parties involved went beyond mere awareness and actively facilitated the crime. It is also important to examine whether current and former secretarial staff ignored the victim’s repeated transfer requests. Regarding this, some Seoul city secretarial staff have claimed that the victim never made such transfer requests. However, there is also an analysis that proving these points is fundamentally blocked due to former Mayor Park’s death. It is practically difficult to determine complicity or other charges based solely on surrounding evidence without obtaining testimony from the individual accused of sexual harassment.

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