President Moon 'strongly' supports #MeToo movement in S. Korea

By Lim Chang-won Posted : February 26, 2018, 17:08 Updated : February 26, 2018, 17:08

[Joint Press Corps]


SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Aju News) -- The head of a provincial theater troupe was arrested Monday as President Moon Jae-in expressed his "strong" support for South Korea's nascent #MeToo movement and called for an active criminal investigation to eradicate sexual harassment.

Police in the southern city of Gimhae announced the arrest of a 50-year-old man identified by his surname, Cho, on charges of sexually assaulting or abusing two teenaged members of his theater troupe between 2007 and 2012.

He is the first to stand trial in the MeToo movement which has spread rapidly to the country's academic, movie, cultural and other communities since a female prosecutor claimed last month that she was sexually harassed by a drunken senior prosecutor in October 2010.

The movement has ostracized a dozen actors and others, including Ko Un, a prominent 84-year-old poet respected as South Korea's iconic poet whose works were translated and published in dozens of countries with his name often mentioned as a Nobel Prize candidate. Female writers accused him of habitual sexual abuse.

At a meeting of aides on Monday, Moon known as an advocate of equal rights, said he "strongly" support the MeToo movement, calling for "fundamental" steps, including an active criminal investigation by law enforcement authorities, to eradicate a deep-rooted practice of sexual abuse in South Korea.

"I take the MeToo movement very seriously," Moon said, praising the courage of those who made revelations. "Gender violence is an issue of social structural," he said, urging the victims of sexual abuse to reveal the truth.

"As it is a problem that requires change in culture and consciousness, I think it is necessary to spread the MeToo movement across our society and the self-purification movement in each field," the president said, adding South Korean should not allow men to trample on weak women with their strength or power regardless of their status.
 
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