Foreign Ministry engulfed in sexual harassment case

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry has suspended Consul General Lee Dae-hee in Auckland, New Zealand from his post for alleged ethical lapses and sexual harassment, a ministry official said Sunday.

Lee was summoned home on June 15 in connection with allegations of engaging in a scuffle with a fellow Korean official and harassing female embassy staff.

The ministry plans to hold a disciplinary committee meeting Tuesday to determine the level of punishment.

He is accused of inappropriate physical contact with female colleagues in a karaoke room, and “another woman filed a complaint to the Korean Embassy” in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital.

The official has denied the accusations.

“There was an allegation over a sexual harassment. But female staff at the embassy eventually withdrew the accusation,” the official told The Korea Times Sunday, asking not to be identified.

“An internal investigation within the ministry discovered behavioral problems in Lee carrying out his duties, and that was why he was suspended from his post,” the official said.

This case is a reminder of the Shanghai scandal which shook the foreign ministry in 2011.

Several diplomats posted to Shanghai were found to have passed along critical information to a Chinese woman with whom they all had had affairs.

Leaked data included material related to national security and phone numbers of President Lee Myung-bak, first lady Kim Yoon-ok and almost 200 other high-ranking officials, leading to speculation that she could have been a Chinese secret agent.

The Shanghai incident led to Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan appearing in front of a congressional hearing, resulting in a more constraining code of ethics and increased discipline for diplomats.

Yet, it seems to have done very little in managing violations.

Similar scandals, although smaller in scale, have continued. The most recent was in February this year in Bangkok where a female Korean professor claimed to have been sexually harassed by a diplomat.

The professor said the diplomat had touched her thigh in a car and a coffee shop where the two met, while the official in question dismissed the allegations as baseless. <The Korea Times/Kim Se-jeong>

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