[Yonhap Photo]
With South Korea's presidential race making its last spurt, conservative candidate Hong Joon-pyo came under pressure from women's groups to step down for providing his school day friend with sexual stimulants for a failed plot to rape a co-ed.
In his memoirs, the candidate from ex-president Park Geun-hye's former ruling group, the Liberty Korea Party, confessed to a rape attempt in the early 1970s while attending a law college in Seoul. He and his friends allegedly plotted a date-rape by providing a homestay-mate with sexual stimulants for pigs to use on his crush.
Although the plotted rape failed, he faced heavy criticism from equal rights activists. Public anger intensified after Hong's spokesperson said a radio talk show: "Please understand the incident took place when Hong was a vigorous freshman, and public sentiment was a little different back then 45 years ago."
Hong apologized during a TV debate for failing to prevent his friend from attempting a sexual assault and said, "Though it was not me who did it, I feel sorry." Embarrassed by what he called "malicious" criticism, he voiced annoyance via his Facebook.
However, the Korea Women's Association United joined forced with a dozen feminist and civic groups to demand Hong's withdrawal from the presidential race. "Hong's previous act of plotting a rape is a serious crime by itself," they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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