By Cho Chung-un
A ruling party lawmaker embroiled in an alleged sexual assault case said Monday that he would leave the party for causing concerns.
“Regardless of what the reason may have been, I will leave the Saenuri Party not to put the burden on the party,” said Rep. Sim Hag-bong in a statement. “I will faithfully cooperate with the police investigation to resolve all suspicions,” he said.
The remark came a day after he denied an allegation that he raped a woman in her 40s at a hotel in Daegu last month. The woman, whose name was withheld, claimed that the lawmaker took her clothes off against her will and sexually assaulted her. She was nearly threatened to come to the hotel, where the lawmaker had already checked in, through constant phone calls he made, and told the police. The police were looking into the case, securing phone records between the two and the footage of surveillance cameras showing the two entering the hotel on June 13.
The woman, however, has stoked the flames of controversy as she suddenly changed her statement. She said was not forced to have sex, and she doesn’t want him to be prosecuted. Shim, 54, is a first-term lawmaker representing Gumi-A Constituency in North Gyeongsang Province.
Investigators said they would summon Rep. Sim as a suspect and question him as to whether he had attempted to threaten or cajole her into having sex.
The case is the latest in a series of sexual scandals involving the ruling party lawmakers.
In 2006, Choi Yeon-hee, former lawmaker of Grand National Party, the predecessor of the ruling Saenuri, stepped down from his post as party secretary-general after he was accused of sexually harassing a female reporter. Another former GNP lawmaker Kang Yong-seok also defected from the party for his raw sexual remarks of TV announcers. Earlier this year, former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae was sentenced to a six-month jail term suspended for one year for sexually harassing a female caddie during a round of golf last year.
“The Park Geun-hye government, (headed by) the first female president in the constitutional history, has been pushing to eradicate four major evils including sexual and domestic violence,” said main opposition lawmaker Rep. Yoo Seung-hee, reciting the list of former and incumbent Saenuri lawmakers who were implicated for sexual harassments.
“It is pathetic to watch the governing party failing to keep its internal figures under discipline.”
The Saenuri Party also vowed to sternly punish Rep. Sim and urged lawmakers not to defend him.
“The Saenuri Party will take clear action to the lawmaker involved in the case. There’s no reason to defend him,” said Rep. Hwang Jin-ha, secretary-general of the party.
(christory@heraldcorp.com)
Saenuri lawmaker defects over rape claim
