Gunsan City Council Member Faces Sexual Harassment Remarks Controversy: "Raise Your Hand If You Want to Cause a Scandal with Me"

'Controversial Remarks' Gunsan City Council Member Han Kyung-bong
Now Accused of Sexual Harassment Remarks Toward Female Staff

Jeonbuk Gunsan City Council member Han Kyung-bong (Saseon District), who previously caused controversy by speaking harshly to public officials, has once again become embroiled in controversy for making sexually harassing remarks toward female employees at Gunsan City Hall.

According to Gunsan City Council and Gunsan City on the 11th, Han is reported to have said at 8 p.m. the previous day in the break room to waiting female employees, "Raise your hand if you want to have a scandal with me." At that time, it is known that about 10 female public officials from Gunsan City were in the break room.

Hankyungbong, Member of Gunsan City Council. Photo by Yonhap News Agency, provided by Gunsan City Council

After Han’s sexually harassing remarks became known, numerous posts condemning the behavior flooded the anonymous bulletin board of Gunsan City Hall. An anonymous public official wrote in a post, "In these turbulent times, countless citizens and the public are braving the cold to head to Yeouido, raising their voices to save the collapsing Republic of Korea, yet there is a city council member who harasses female public officials and makes vulgar remarks that cause sexual shame," and urged, "If this is true, the chairman of the Gunsan City Council should discipline him." Comments related to this post followed, stating, "This council member habitually sexually harasses female employees by ranking their appearances," and "He also made remarks to department heads with many female managers, saying it must be nice to have so many flowers."

The Gunsan City Public Officials Union demanded punishment for the council member and measures to prevent recurrence, and visited Kim Woo-min, chairman of the Gunsan City Council, to protest. Chairman Kim said, "After the union’s protest visit, the council leadership called the council member before today’s plenary session and gave him a stern warning," and added, "Also, since budget deliberations start tomorrow, I asked the budget committee chairman to urge members to be cautious when speaking." Regarding disciplinary action against Han, he said, "Currently, the ethics committee regulations do not include provisions to discipline such behavior at the council level," and added, "We will do our best to prevent recurrence by warning the member and ensuring such incidents do not happen again."

Regarding the controversy, Council member Han claimed, "The remark was made not yesterday (the 10th) but a few days ago during a break in the standing committee’s budget review, and the conversation was in a joking manner at the time," and said, "The parties involved laughed together and did not recognize any problem." He continued, "It seems someone who was not present at the scene is creating controversy," and argued, "Probably, as criticism against the executive branch has continued recently over organizational restructuring and the appointment of the Volunteer Center director, this controversy was stirred up to divert attention."

During the administrative audit period on the 25th of last month, Han had publicly apologized after shouting at a responsible official in the audit hall corridor while requesting materials related to the appointment of the Gunsan Volunteer Center director. At that time, he defended himself by saying, "The center official who said they would submit the materials immediately did not appear for over two hours, and later changed their position, saying they could not submit the materials because the Volunteer Center board’s decision had not yet been made," and added, "This is mocking a council member who represents the citizens and deceiving the council. My emotions flared, which led me to raise my voice."