Democratic Party Busan Branch Calls Ethics Tribunal... "Apologies to 3.5 Million Busan Citizens"

Park Min-seong, Deputy Floor Leader of the Democratic Party in the Busan Metropolitan Council

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] The Busan City Party of the Democratic Party of Korea issued a public apology to citizens regarding the sexual harassment controversy involving one of its city council members.

Park Minseong, the Democratic Party's deputy floor leader in the Busan City Council, held a press conference at the Busan City Council briefing room on the afternoon of the 12th, stating, "We deeply regret and sincerely apologize that a sexual harassment report against a city council member was filed during a difficult time for all citizens due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and heavy rains."

He continued, "As the majority party representing 3.5 million citizens of Busan Metropolitan City, we feel a great sense of responsibility for causing significant disappointment and hurt to the citizens. The Democratic Party finds this incident absolutely unacceptable and will take strict disciplinary measures in accordance with the ongoing police investigation results."

He added, "Apart from these measures, we will do our utmost to protect the victim and will strengthen sexual violence prevention education and gender sensitivity training for city council members to ensure that such incidents never recur. We will humbly heed the will of the citizens."

The Busan City Party convened an ethics tribunal meeting that afternoon to verify the facts and conduct a thorough investigation, and if the allegations are confirmed, disciplinary actions will be discussed.

According to the police, a report was filed around 9 p.m. on the 11th regarding City Council Member A allegedly sexually harassing a female employee at a restaurant in Saha-gu, Busan. The female employee claimed that City Council Member A made sexual jokes and engaged in inappropriate physical contact. The council member denied the allegations, stating, "This is completely untrue. It is true that we had a drinking gathering. There were five people including myself. Everyone was present at the scene. There was no sexual harassment."

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