Senior Police Officer Under Intense Investigation for Allegedly Harassing Junior Female Officers

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It has been confirmed that a police superintendent in his 50s, who has worked in the South Gyeongsang Province region for over 30 years, is facing an intensive inspection over allegations of sexually harassing junior female officers. Investigations indicate that these inappropriate behaviors continued for years, but went unexposed for a long time due to his significant local influence.

Reporter Son Gijun has the exclusive report first.

[Reporter]

According to SBS reporting, the Korean National Police Agency's Inspection Officer's Office has launched an inspection since early this month into Superintendent A, an official belonging to the South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency, over suspicions including sexual misconduct.

The inspection team is paying particular attention to allegations of sexual harassment against junior female officers spanning several years. Starting this week, even the National Police Agency's Human Rights Protection Officer's Office, which investigates internal sexual misconduct cases, has been deployed.

The harassment predominantly took place during drinking gatherings, and the number of victims identified so far exceeds 10, which could further increase during the course of additional investigations.

[Official at a regional police station: I understand he attended many drinking sessions, actively built relationships, and was good at managing his connections...]br />
A regional police official stated, "The targets were not only employees within the same department, but also those from other departments, and even female officers at district patrol divisions."

Superintendent A, in his late 50s, is a so-called regional veteran officer who has spent most of his career spanning over 30 years working in South Gyeongsang Province, including Geoje.

Having worked for a long time as an intelligence officer handling regional information and trends, he reportedly earned the nickname "King of Geoje" through deep local connections built over time.

The official noted that due to his influence within the region, the details of the damage had not come to light until now.

Police have also reportedly uncovered circumstances where Superintendent A had junior female officers accompany him to drinking sessions with key figures such as local businesspeople, where the harassment took place.

Following reports by SBS last month regarding the death of a firefighter in her 20s who had complained of workplace bullying, including forced drinking, President Lee Jae-myung repeatedly urged the eradication of drinking culture and sexual misconduct within the public service sector.

[President Lee Jae-myung (on the 15th): Drinking and having fun are all fine, but do not seat young women next to you like that. That invariably leads to incidents. Young female staff members are not playthings.]

Considering the gravity of the matter, the National Police Agency directly initiated the inspection against Superintendent A—whose rank of superintendent is typically handled at the provincial police agency level—and placed him on administrative leave.

(Photo: Yonhap News - Wait, checking source formatting)
(Camera Reporter: Jung Kyoung-mun, Video Editor: Lee Sang-min, Design: Choi Jin-hyeok)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.