The Seoul city government said Wednesday it would not be conducting the probe into allegations that the late Mayor Park Won-soon had sexually harassed his secretary for years, following criticism that some of its own officials may have had enabled the abuse through negligence.

At a news conference held earlier in the morning, representatives of Park’s former secretary said the city government should be on the receiving end of the investigations into the accusations faced by the late mayor, not leading them.

“She had raised the issue consistently with around 20 superiors throughout the four years she was there. Each time, she was silenced and nothing was done to address it,” said Lee Mi-kyoung, head of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, accusing city officials of possibly being complicit.

“In response to her requests to be moved to a different department, the human resource director said she would have to ask the mayor for approval herself. There may have been senior officials who were well aware of the misconduct, but chose to condone it,” she said.

“This is why we will not be cooperating with the city-led probe, which is inherently prone to bias,” she said. The metropolitan office announced a week ago that it would launch its own fact-finding probe into the scandal, two days after the ex-secretary released details of the sexual harassment claims.

Police have opened probes into suspicions against Park, including possible instances of aiding and abetting by those at the mayoral secretariat, but they are not legally binding as a deceased suspect cannot be indicted. Park died July 9 in an apparent suicide while serving his third term as mayor, a day after the ex-secretary went to police with the accusations. 

“In light of the challenges, we believe that the best investigative agency to handle a case of sexual misconduct in public office is the National Human Rights Commission,” said the former secretary’s attorney, Kim Jae-ryon.

Kim said they planned to submit a petition with the state human rights commission next week. The city has vowed “unmitigated cooperation” with the commission, should it decide to investigate.

“Park’s death has effectively obliterated all chances of proper criminal proceedings, robbing her of her right to a fair trial,” said Kim.

Song Ran-hee, head of another women’s rights group, the Korea Women’s Hotline, also spoke out against victim blaming.

“Some have accused her of driving the mayor to his death by going public with the allegations. But her complaint with the police was not known until hours after he was found dead,” she said. She added that if the mayor was informed of accusations made against him, how that information leaked must be investigated as well.

Song also took issue with the fact that Park had a state funeral in spite of public opposition. A complaint on the Cheong Wa Dae website protesting the state funeral was signed by over 580,000 people.

“The decision to proceed with the mayoral funeral only served to reaffirm the tremendous power she is fighting against, and set a harmful precedent for all women who are pushing back against abuse by powerful men,” she said.

In a note he left behind, Park said he was “sorry to everyone.” The capital mayor was one of the most prominent and well-liked figures in Korean politics -- a close aide to the President Moon Jae-in and a potential presidential contender himself.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)