Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon: "Repeated Lenient Punishments for Cultural Heritage Administration Misconduct... Must Be Strict"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been revealed that the Cultural Heritage Administration has been passive in dealing with the lax discipline of employees who committed acts such as prostitution, sexual harassment, drunk driving, theft, and violence.

According to the 'Disciplinary Reasons and Results of Cultural Heritage Administration Employees' data submitted by the Cultural Heritage Administration to Lee Byung-hoon (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul), a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, 44 public officials were disciplined by the Cultural Heritage Administration's disciplinary committee over the past five years.

The reasons for discipline included reckless driving (2 people), drunk driving (6 people), and violations of the Special Act on Traffic Accidents (5 people). There were also nine cases related to sexual crimes such as prostitution (2 people), quasi-rape (1 person), and sexual harassment (6 people), as well as theft (2 people) and violence (3 people).

Despite the seriousness of these issues, the Cultural Heritage Administration has been criticized for being lenient in punishment.

Only three people received severe disciplinary actions: dismissal, removal, and demotion, one person each, and two people were suspended. The rest were lightly disciplined with 13 warnings, 15 pay reductions, and 11 reprimands. In particular, the disciplinary action against a public official involved in prostitution with a 13-year-old child was limited to a one-rank demotion.

Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon said, “The Cultural Heritage Administration is a department that handles Korea’s cultural heritage and cultural assets, and it should have more dignity in its employees and organizational culture than any other organization. However, incidents and accidents such as sexual crimes, theft, and violence continue to occur, and lenient punishments are repeatedly given. It is necessary to strictly apply disciplinary regulations such as the so-called one-strike-out system, which currently exists only in words.”

Meanwhile, over the past five years, the number of crime notifications received from the Prosecutor’s Office, Police Agency, and others regarding Cultural Heritage Administration public officials reached 69 cases, of which 35 cases were internally closed without disciplinary action.

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