Mexican Ambassador Criticizes Jeong Cheol-seung for "Promoting Discriminatory Culture" by Saying "Don't Keep a Female Secretary"

A Twitter post by Bruno Figueroa, the Mexican Ambassador to Korea, criticizing the advice from Jeong Cheol-seung, lawyer for the family of the late Park Won-soon, former mayor of Seoul, to "not have a female secretary." Photo by Bruno Figueroa

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] The late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s family lawyer, Jeong Cheol-seung, posted advice saying "Do not have a female secretary," which has recently drawn attention after the Mexican Ambassador to Korea publicly criticized it as "promoting a discriminatory culture."

Bruno Figueroa, the Mexican Ambassador to Korea, tweeted on the 28th of last month, "'If you are a man, do not hire a female secretary!' This is the advice from the late Mayor Park’s family lawyer following last year’s sexual harassment allegations," and pointed out, "I believe this only further promotes a discriminatory culture."

Along with his post, Ambassador Figueroa shared a photo taken at a past event where he was wearing a traditional Mexican hat with former Mayor Park. He then asked people, "What do you think about (Lawyer Jeong’s post)?"

Earlier, on the 23rd of the same month, Lawyer Jeong, the legal representative of the late Mayor Park’s family, posted on Facebook, "I stopped by the office of a friend who is a vice president at a large corporation, and there was a female employee working in the secretarial office. I advised him not to have female employees in the secretarial office," sparking a 'Pence Rule controversy.'

The 'Pence Rule' originates from former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s 2002 interview where he stated, "I never have dinner alone with a woman who is not my wife." It means avoiding unnecessary private meetings with women, but nowadays it is widely used to mean excluding women from official duties to preemptively prevent inappropriate incidents.

Some criticize the Pence Rule as an immature response that excludes women entirely to prevent sexual violence, placing the responsibility solely on women. There are concerns that this will ultimately lead to discrimination, such as reduced employment opportunities for women.

A post by Jeong Cheol-seung, lawyer for the family of the late Park Won-soon, former mayor of Seoul, on his Facebook page on the 25th of last month. He is responding to criticism of his statement, "Do not have a female secretary." / Photo by Jeong Cheol-seung

When the 'Pence Rule controversy' arose over his remarks, Lawyer Jeong posted again, saying, "There are people who curse and criticize by linking to the post I made a few days ago," and "mostly people in their 20s and 30s. While women might feel offended by my post, when men do it, it feels like... well... It reminds me of how naive people who have never been scammed tend to mock scam victims."

He added, "The reactions of those who seem somewhat lacking are intense," and said, "I hate hatred, but (the men criticizing me) are hateful people. Or are they pitiful people?"

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