Seoul mayor found dead after sexual harassment complaint made against him

civil servants at the Seoul city government had committed suicide due to work-related stress under him

This must change in our countries.

Sounds like suicide to me. Coward, not willing to take responsibility and be held accountable to that sexual harassment accusation.

Just because you are elected to a position of power does not make your behaviour acceptable, the opposite you now have to think about other people, sadly that hasn't sunken in to the narcissistic mind set these people have.

Noh Mu-heon also "killed himself" under suspicious circumstances (i.e. his bodyguard changed his story a number of times).

Worthy of investigation.

Very unfortunate.

According to one article, he won the country's first sexual harassment lawsuit, and was an outspoken critic of Japan's colonial era policies. At the same time, he did visit Japan to study Japan's natural disaster response systems and praised it.

Some will say he chose a "cowardly" path. I say he chose the honorable path. So many politicians and high profile figures in this world face little to no punishment for their misdeeds, and never atone for them. For someone to sacrifice their own life as a form of self punishment is by comparison a noble deed, and hardly cowardly. Killing one's self is not an easy thing to do, at all.

it is hard to trust politicians in korea. especially he is a good candidate to run for president. he can be set up for sexual harassment or make it look like suicide.

That’s a bit extreme there buddy, but if he did it once, there’s probably a dozen.

RIP

I guess he was guilty. RIP.

as BigYen said, in Japan and Korea (don't know about other Asian countries), shame is still a very powerful driving force, both in a positive and negative manner. The guy could not bear the shame of a public trial, even if he may or may not have been found guilty.

Some details on the claim of alleged sexual harassment would have been nice too.

This is a more shame based society. If he was accused of sexual harassment, he could have been in a fragile state.

My sympathies to his family.

A man accused of sexual harassment supposedly commits suicide and we get an article about all the wonderful things he's done and little on the claims. Right up there with Brock Turner having his swim times written about.

Bigyen, did you read the article? "If Park does prove to have killed himself..."

Human rights, women’s rights and trying to defuse tensions with NK. Possible next PM.

I hope it’s suicide and not something more sinister.

16 Seoul city employees committed suicide under mayor Park Won-soon.

Inexplicably stupefying for a mayor to take his own life over a sexual harassment claim.

Across the pond... an ex-senator was accused of a similar claim (even corroborated by witnesses)...and he just laughed it off....as the #me2 movement... like the rest of MSM kept silent looking the other way... because he is now the standard bearer. ...or unless perhaps he is likely to be Epsteined sooner or later. Just saying.

There is an old saying in south Korea: NO happy ending for whoever being the president of South Korea! Like a curse haunting that country! Some says the "Feng Shui" of the president palace is worst causing those tragedies!

In light of his accomplishments listed here, that allegation was truly a death sentence.

He brought it on himself, from the list of lewd actions he continued to launch on his secretary. Not one instance, but a pattern. It's all about power, but she had the upper hand in the hand. Men, why can't they behave themselves?

--upper hand in the end. (no edit function at JT)

Now that he is dead, all the politicians are making a big show out of it. Showing how much they care. They probably gonna glorify and make him into a saint while the fact is he chose death instead of facing trial. Dying is easy, but living on is 10 times harder for any person in life. The whole thing will be shove under a rug and he will be praise by everyone how great of a man he was when he was alive.

He brought it on himself, from the list of lewd actions he continued to launch on his secretary. Not one instance, but a pattern.

But did she at any time tell him to stop? The article mentions no instance of physical assault. I think we're a little in the dark on this one.

We don't know if the allegations are true or not.

I'm quite disgusted by some of the comments here.

We don't know the full context but someone just took their own life. Now a family has lost a husband and a father, and a nation has lost a leader.

If it was true that he sexually harassed other people, then I wish he would have answered for his crimes rather than take his own life.

Some of the readers may not know this, but this man was incredibly skilled and qualified to run Seoul and run as candidate for the next president of Korea.

He was a progressive leader, and despite differences between Korea and Japan, he respected Japan (actually most Koreans do but media never seems to portray that).

Anyway I hope he can now rest in peace and reflect on his life, and for those affected by his actions to find strength and inner peace.