No Evidence of Homicide or Other Criminal Charges Found
A 9th-grade public official at Namyangju City Hall in Gyeonggi, who started working in January, was found dead. This occurred just three months into the job.
On the 20th, Hanam Police Station announced, "Around 8 a.m., a public official in his 30s affiliated with Namyangju City Hall, Mr. A, was found dead inside his car near Misa Stadium in Mangwol-dong, Hanam City."
Mr. A's mother reported him missing to the police around 7:30 a.m. the same day after failing to contact her son. Based on the family's statement that Mr. A had driven out around midnight, the police began tracking him. They located Mr. A's vehicle through a mobile phone location check and confirmed his death inside the car. No signs of homicide or other criminal suspicion were found, and a note resembling a suicide letter was found on Mr. A's phone. It was reported that Mr. A had expressed work-related distress to his mother the day before.
Mr. A, a 9th-grade public official assigned to Namyangju City Hall in January this year, had recently completed three weeks of new public official training. The police believe Mr. A took his own life and are investigating the detailed motives behind his death.
In Gimpo City, a public official also died due to malicious civil complaints
Memorial Ceremony for Gimpo City Official Who Died After Suffering from Complaints [Photo by Yonhap News]
Earlier, on the 5th, Mr. B, a public official in Gimpo City, also died by suicide. He received protest complaints when traffic congestion occurred related to pothole repair work conducted on Gimpo roads on the 29th of last month. Subsequently, Mr. B was subjected to malicious civil complaints, including the exposure of his personal information on online cafes, which is believed to have led to his suicide.
Gimpo City requested the police to investigate netizens who posted Mr. B's personal information, personal attacks, and related posts on online cafes. They are currently gathering relevant evidence. Gimpo City has also launched a fact-finding investigation, including reviewing civil complaint phone call recordings, to clarify the incident's details.
In this regard, the Korean Government Employees' Union (Jeongongno) and the Federation of Korean Government Employees' Unions (Gongnochong) held a press conference on the 18th in front of the War Memorial near the Presidential Office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, urging the government to strengthen the responsibility of agency heads for preventing and responding to malicious civil complaints.
※If you have difficult-to-talk-about concerns such as depression or know family or acquaintances facing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling by calling the suicide prevention hotline ☎109.
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