Missing Seoul mayor Park Won-soon’s body found in hills

Daughter reported him missing on Thursday and said her father left ‘will-like’ message before leaving home
Reports said former secretary filed a criminal complaint against the mayor, accusing him of sexually harassing her repeatedly

South Korea

Associated Press

Published: 6:56pm, 9 Jul 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

Seoul City mayor Park Won-soon was found dead on Friday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, after his daughter reported him missing a day earlier.

After a search involving hundreds of officers, Park’s body was found at Mt Bugak in northern Seoul at around midnight, near where his phone signal had last been detected, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.

It did not give a cause of death. There was no sign of foul play although a detailed investigation would be needed, police official Choi Ik-soo told reporters at a televised briefing at the scene.

Park’s daughter called police on Thursday afternoon and said her father left a “will-like” message before leaving their home four to five hours earlier. She did not explain the contents of the message, according to one of the officers at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who is responsible for Park’s search operation.

Late Seoul mayor Park Won-soon was vocal supporter of China

The daughter said she decided to call police because she could not reach her father on the phone, the officer said.

About 150 officers, a drone and a police dog were mobilised for Park’s search, according to police.

Kim Ji-hyeong, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, confirmed that Park did not show up for work on Thursday for unspecified reasons and had cancelled all events on his schedule, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.

00:52

Missing Seoul mayor Park Won-soon found dead in hills near South Korean capital

According to media reports, Park disappeared after his former secretary reportedly filed a criminal complaint against the mayor, accusing him of sexually harassing her repeatedly since she started working under him in 2017.

The woman, accompanied by her lawyer, filed the complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Wednesday. The complaint stated that Park had repeatedly touched the woman and sent her his pictures through a mobile messenger app, SBS TV reported.

Police official Choi said an investigation was under way after a criminal complaint had been lodged against Park, without elaborating.

A long-time civic activist and human rights lawyer, Park was elected as Seoul mayor in 2011 and became the city’s first mayor to be voted into a third term in June last year. A member of President Moon Jae-in’s Liberal Democratic Party, Park has been considered a potential presidential hopeful for the liberals in the 2022 elections.

If Korea is beating the virus, why are so many of its people staying home?

Park has mostly maintained his activist colours as mayor, criticising what he described as the country’s growing social and economic inequalities and the traditionally corrupt ties between large businesses and politicians.

During the earlier part of his terms, Park established himself as a fierce opponent of former conservative President Park Geun-hye and openly supported the millions of people who flooded the city streets in late 2016 and 2017, calling for her ouster over a corruption scandal.

Rescue personnel were dispatched to search Waryong park for Seoul mayor Park Won-soon on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Park Geun-hye was formally removed from office in March 2017 and is currently serving a decades-long prison term on bribery and other charges.

Seoul, a city with 10 million people, has been a new epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea since the Asian country eased its rigid social distancing rules in early May.

Authorities are struggling to trace contacts amid surges in cases linked to nightclubs, church services, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sellers.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Park Chan-kyong

Post