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| The #MeToo movement is spreading in South Korea, where a number of high-profile men have been accused of sex abuse (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-je) |
Seoul (AFP) - A South Korean member of parliament resigned Monday after being accused of sex abuse, the latest target of a spreading #MeToo campaign in the country, as an exhibition to an accused poet was dismantled.
Min
Byung-doo, a three-term lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Party, submitted
his resignation despite requests by his own organisation to reconsider as his
exit whittled away its position as largest party in the legislature.
He is the
first sitting MP to step down over allegations of abuse, which have swept
fields from politics to the arts.
A woman who
declined to be named claimed in an interview with the online news website
Newstapa that Min had forcibly kissed her and unzipped her trousers at a
karaoke in 2008.
Min, 59,
denied the accusation in a statement last week but said he was "ready to
resign if I committed any wrongdoings that I was not aware of".
Min's
resignation has to be approved by the parliament to take effect, but would
reduce the Democratic Party to 120 seats in the single chamber, just four more
than the conservative Liberty Korea opposition. And at least seven by-elections
are already due in June.
Also
Monday, the main library of the capital Seoul removed an exhibition in honour
of Ko Un, who is regularly tipped for the Nobel Prize in literature but has
been accused of sex abuse.
Famed poet
Choi Young-mi claimed that Ko, 84, had often groped young female writers and
editors after publishing a thinly-veiled poem "Monster", in which she
detailed her experiences at his hands.
Another
poet, Park Jin-sung, also said he had seen Ko groping women and exposing his
penis to them while other literary figures turned a blind eye.
As public
fury over Ko escalated, the education ministry said last week almost all of
Ko's works and mentions of his name would be removed from school textbooks.
Seoul
Metropolitan Library, where a replica of Ko's study featuring his books and
other personal items donated by him had been on display since last year,
removed the exhibition.
"We
will take steps to return all the materials to the poet," said a library
official quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
Ko has
denied the allegations against him in a statement to the Guardian, saying he did
"nothing which might bring shame on my wife or myself".
South
Korean women have long been reluctant to come forward about sex abuse due to
fears of relentless public shaming and bullying in a country that remains
deeply patriarchal despite economic and technological advances.
But a Seoul
prosecutor in January made a rare move to speak out about sex abuse by a
superior on live television, triggering a wave of accusations against figures
ranging from artists to politicians.
In the most
high-profile case, Ahn Hee-jung, a former presidential contender and a star
politician, stepped down last week as a provincial governor after his aide
accused him of multiple rapes.
He was
questioned for around nine hours by prosecutors on Friday.
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