[Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- Forced sex using superior status or power at work will be doubled to ten years in prison under a revised law as South Korea's #MeToo movement exposed a slew of sexual abuse allegations against prominent figures in political and other communities.
In a session led by Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back on Wednesday, policymakers worked out a series of steps to eradicate sex abuses at the workplace. They will seek revised legislation to raise jail terms for sexual assault cases and extend the statute of limitations.
The maximum prison sentence for obtaining sex using power or superior positions at work will be raised from five to 10 years, while those involved in sexual harassment can be jailed for up to five years instead of two years. Government officials agreed to extend the statute of limitations by up to three years.
Company owners will be jailed if they cover up or ignore sex-related crimes and harassment.
President Moon Jae-in has expressed his "strong" support for the #MeToo movement, calling for an active criminal investigation to eradicate sexual harassment.
The publishers of secondary school textbooks decided to remove content related to writers and artists accused of sexual misdeeds from secondary school textbooks. The Education Ministry said that publishers would delete references to Ko Un, an 84-year-old poet accused of sexually harassing women.
Ko has 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. However, female writers have accused him of habitual sexual abuse.
Last month, Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong, who heads South Korea's Roman Catholic church, apologized after a priest was accused of attempting to rape a female follower during their stay in South Sudan for missionary work in 2011.
This week, An Hee-jung, a popular provincial governor who was once regarded as a potential presidential candidate of South Korea's ruling party, offered to resign and suspend all of his political activities Tuesday after apologizing for sexually abusing his female secretary.
An, 54, became the first politician to be involved in the "#MeToo" movement which began this year after a female prosecutor claimed that she was sexually harassed by a drunken senior prosecutor in 2010.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
