Politics gets uglier as lawmakers on all sides face harassment claims

It has been harassment after harassment this week, with an opposition lawmaker using a “royal concubine” reference as she disparaged another female legislator, just a day after a progressive party leader was sacked for sexual misconduct against a fellow lawmaker.

Adding to the series of disclosures, criminal actions, apologies and ensuing uproar was the accusation that the main opposition party leader made inappropriate physical contact on a reporter’s body as he pushed her out of the elevator.

As of Thursday, the “royal concubine” analogy appeared to top the race to go viral, as if to strike a political balance amidst this week’s shocking revelation of sexual misconduct by the former Justice Party leader and the nation’s human rights watchdog’s conclusion that the late Seoul mayor sexually harassed his secretary.

Rep. Cho Soo-jin of the People Power Party apologized Thursday, two days after writing on Facebook that “even a royal concubine who bore a prince couldn’t have enjoyed such special treatment” in her criticism of Rep. Koh Min-jung of the ruling Democratic Party.

Koh filed a criminal complaint with the police against Cho on charges of public insult.

Cho said the Joseon Dynasty royal concubine analogy was “a figure of speech, and it was sad that it turned into a political controversy of belittling of women.”

Cho, a first-time lawmaker of proportional representation, was butting in on Koh’s disparaging remarks against former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party.

Koh, an ex-television presenter and former presidential spokesperson in the Moon Jae-in administration who won against Oh in last year’s parliamentary election, mocked the former mayor on Facebook last week for “continuing with his conditional politics” even after losing to her in Seoul’s Gwangjin-B district.

Citing Oh’s statements in a recent media interview that he would give up the next presidential election if he gets elected as Seoul mayor this time, and that he will run for Seoul mayor if Ahn Cheol-soo doesn’t join the People Power Party, Koh said it was “a shame he still does conditional politics even though he failed to be chosen by the residents of Gwangjin-B, Jongnu-gu, and the people who wanted free school meals.”

Oh, a former lawyer and lawmaker who served as Seoul mayor from 2006 until he quit in 2011 over losing a plebiscite on a free school lunch program, is one of the People Power Party’s next Seoul mayoral hopefuls.

Oh Shin-hwan, another prospective candidate of the PPP for Seoul mayor, blasted Koh, saying “it is unprecedented how low-grade she is.”

Rep. Cho, who managed to keep her job as she was slapped a lesser fine for underreporting her assets during last year’s parliamentary election, said Koh’s mockery of Oh was “crude beyond measure.”

Cho said that just before the election in April last year, Lee In-young, DP floor leader at the time and currently minister of unification, told people in Gwangjin-B that the government will give out 1 million won to each person if they vote for Koh.

Koh should be “all the more modest if she was elected on the backing of those currently in power,” Cho went on, saying that Koh should be grateful for not being charged for falsely stating her academic credentials in campaign leaflets.

Forty-one Democratic Party legislators demanded in a press statement that Cho step down, and said the DP will file a petition against her with the parliamentary ethics committee.

As for the #MeToo accusation against People Power Party floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young, the People Power Party’s lawyer said they have sued “the woman who claims to be a reporter of News Free Zone” for libel through spreading false information.

“We are suing her also for obstruction of business, trespassing and refusing to leave the premises. It hasn’t been confirmed whether she has sued Joo, but if she has, we will add charges of false accusation,” the lawyer said, adding that she also plans to sue those who took part in spreading falsehoods, such as the Democratic Party’s Rep. Kim Yong-min, chief of the party’s public relations committee, and a prosecutor who is active on Facebook.

The lawyer said that members of News Free Zone have continued illegal acts of violence by intruding on People Power Party’s conference rooms, hurling verbal abuse at former floor leader Na Kyung-won, making People Power Party’s former leader Hwang Kyo-an stop his speech, and recording all this and putting it up on YouTube for profit.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)