The Silenced Epidemic: Sexual Abuse and Harassment in Korea
Via foreignpolicy.com
CW: rape, sexual abuse/harrassment
With ⅓ of women worldwide experiencing physical or sexual violence, it is not a secret that sexual violence is an issue that remained unresolved throughout history. South Korea is not immune to this silent epidemic: sexual abuse and harrassment against women. The National Organisation for Women recognizes sexual assault as an international problem, yet many countries–including South Korea–lack proper legal systems to deal with its repercussions justly.
In a 2019 survey conducted by the South Korean police, 98% of nearly 10,000 cases of sexual assault cases were women. Another study from Korea Women’s Hotline from the same year estimated that a woman is either killed or nearly killed every 1.8 days. More than ½ of the homicide victims in Korea are women, summing up to one of the highest rates of female murder in the world.
But why does this happen? Where does this originate from?
To fully understand the legal circumstances of sexual harassment cases, one needs to first understand the Korean legal definition of sexual abuse. According to WHO, rape is “physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration―even if slight―of the vulva or anus, using body parts or an object.” However, in Korea, rape is specifically defined as the “penetration of the female genitals by the male sex organ while other forms of forced sexual penetration are defined as ‘like-rape’. Lacking a proper definition for rape, the ambiguity of it all makes it difficult to determine proper punishment in court cases, often making the ruling subjective to the judge. This fact becomes significantly more important as only 30% of judges and 4% of police officers in Korea are women.
Just like the definitions are vague, the difference between “rape” and “like-rape” isn’t definitive either. Overall, “rape” has a definite term of at least three years while “like-rape” cases have at least two year long terms. However, the specific niche definition of “rape” makes many cases fall into “like-rape,” which is often more lenient in punishment. Furthermore, in general, rape or domestic violence is often considered as “private matters” and is a taboo topic in Korean society, making it very difficult for victims to properly speak and take action upon the issue.
Additionally, the Korean rape laws originate from patriarchal ideals. Back when the law was first developed, sexual harassment laws derived from the idea of preventing unwanted pregnancy that could bring shame to the family, especially to the father and brother(s). While current laws are claimed to reflect on individual sexual autonomy rather than the precedent idea, the legal distinction between “rape” and “like-rape” makes that doubtful.
Kim Jonghye, a researcher at the GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation, explains it best: “It’s like a vicious cycle,” she said. “The laws reflect today’s society, where many female victims of sexual violence are still blamed for being too drunk or being too sexually provocative. And by enforcing heavier penalties for ‘rape’ than ‘like-rape,’ the laws spread the idea that the most serious or cruel form of sexual abuse is done by the male sex organ only.”
Overall, Korea’s legal system regarding content and sexual abuse is very underdeveloped and unfair to victims of sexual abuse. In 2013, the Korean Supreme Court convicted its first case of spousal rape while only in 2020, the age of consent was raised from 13 to 16. The impact of this underdeveloped system is present in many of its cases. One famous example is the Son Jong Woo case. Son Jong Woo, a 26 Korean male, was sentenced to prison for running the world’s largest darknet child pornography website called Welcome to Video. Owning approximately 8 terabytes of child pornography along with 250,000 unique videos Son profited more than hundreds of thousands of dollars from this website over the course of three years (2015~2018). Within the investigations of the case, 23 children who were actively being abused by the users of the website were discovered and saved. Despite the immense amount of charges and large contribution he had made to the child pornography and human trafficking industry, he only received 18 months in prison in 2018 and was released in July 2020.
Similarly, in cases such as the Nth Room case, a case about a series of encrypted chats featuring sexually exploitative videos, the punishment was also astonishingly light as one of the chat’s organisers recieved only a year sentence. In the Soranet case, the leader, who was responsible for creating a platform that housed thousands of illegally filmed spycam porn videos, received only four years in prison.
Perhaps, the most shocking case of all is Cho Doo Soon rape case. In 2008, a 56 year old man named Cho Doo Soon kidnapped, beated, choked, tortured, and raped an 8 year old with a pseudonym of Na Yeong. According to Ei Jin Shin, a medical doctor who studied Na Yeong and her case, says, “Medically speaking, what Cho did was a murder itself. After he raped her, Cho left the cold water running as the unconscious Na-Yeong was left to bleed on the bathroom floor. That means that he wanted her to die. An adult knows that when you leave a profusely bleeding child on a floor with cold water running, the child is bound to die. This case should’ve been handled as a failed premeditated murder attempt.”
What is more appalling about this case are the repercussions.. Despite the violence and abuse he inflicted onto the poor girl, he avoided a life sentence to a much lighter sentence of 12 years in jail by pleading drunkness. His plea reflects many of the defendants’ arguments in cases like this; by using substance abuse as an excuse, many sexual offenders in Korea are unjustly able to avoid longer terms or harsher punishment. Ironically, a DUI offence resulting in death can be punished upto life imprisonment while DUIs resulting in injuries can lead up to 15 years imprisonment as drunk driving under Korean law is considered as a murder attempt and not a mistake. However, the law debates the intent of harm once it comes to a sexual abuse.
Eun Jung Park, a female prosecutor who has exclusively dealt with cases of sexual abuse against children for the last twelve years, commented in an interview with JTBC: “A reduction in sentencing for sex criminals who cry for their being drunk during the time of the crime has been a factually accurate history in court so far. The defence tends to focus on proving how drunk the perpetrator was.”
On October 20th, 2020, Cho Doo Soon was released from prison.
History throughout and numerous cases have proven over and over again that the current laws on sexual abuse and rape cases in Korea are insufficient towards for the issue. This must change immediately for the sake of not just women and young girls in Korea but victims all around the world.
If you want to learn more about the current Korean laws regarding sexual abuse, please check the resources below:
If you need help regarding sexual abuse or domestic abuse, check the resources below: