Yoon Chang-jung

Yoon Chang-jung (Korean: 윤창중, Hanja: 尹昶重, born 17 July 1956) is a South Korean journalist and official. He briefly served as the press spokesman for Korean president Park Geun-hye in early 2013, and was fired following a sexual assault on a Korean American female intern at the South Korean Embassy in the U.S. in May 2013.[1][2][3][4][5][6] This event is said to "have overshadowed President Park's first visit to the US".[7]

Yoon Chang-jung
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationYoon Chang-jung
McCune–ReischauerYoon Chang-jung

Yoon is a 1982 Korea University alumni[8] who joined the Park election team in 2012.[9] becoming the Blue House spokesman on 24 February 2013. He has been described as a "conservative columnist... disliked by many progressives".[9]

Sex scandal incident

South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited the United States between 5 and 9 May, with Yoon accompanying Park as her chief spokesman.[6]

The sexual assault, or sexual harassment in question, consisted of groping the intern, and later calling her up to his room and answering the door either naked or in underwear (sources vary); those events occurred on May 7.[10] On May 8, 2013 the intern reported those events to the American police.[7] Yoon escaped to Seoul after the alleged assault.[11] Kwak Sang-do, Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs, said the order for Yoon to return “didn’t conflict with any South Korean or US laws,” and that "Yoon’s return from the US was a policy decision by the Blue House, and because he was only under indictment, it was not a criminal flight from justice for him to return to South Korea."[12]

Yoon apologized for his actions on 11 May 2013.[7]

On 12 May 2013, Present Park Geun-hye fired spokesman Yoon Chang-jung in the middle of her trip to the United States after he was accused of sexually assaulting a Korean American female intern from the Washington, D.C. Embassy of South Korea.[6][13] President Park and her office have apologized for Yoon actions on Monday.[7][14]

23 women lawmakers of the Democratic Party in South Korea condemned Yoon for having returned to South Korea in a rush to avoid a U.S. police investigation into his alleged sexual assault and criticized the Blue House for trying to cover up the scandal.[1] The Democratic Party has demanded the resignation of a number of Blue House officials.[15] It has also called for a more thorough investigation.[16] Due to those allegations and demands, Ms. Park’s senior presidential press secretary and Mr. Yoon’s immediate supervisor,[17] Lee Nam-ki, who is said to have encouraged Yoon to return to South Korea as soon as possible to avoid being arrested by U.S. law enforcement, declared that he is willing to resign.[18] On May 10th, the Democratic Party stated that the Washington scandal was a “foreseeable tragedy” because of Park’s refusal to heed her critics.[17]

References
  1. Ser, Myo-ja (2012-05-11). "Blue House spokesman flees U.S. in sex scandal". JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  2. Woo, Jaeyeon (2012-04-17). "South Korea's President Fires Press Spokesman Yoon Chang-jung - Korea Real Time - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  3. "Blue House Spokesman Sacked, Suspected of Sexual Assault in U.S". Rjkoehler.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  4. Adam Taylor (2013-05-01). "Park Geun-hye Fires Yoon Chang-jung". Business Insider. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  5. "Park sacks spokesman Yoon-The Korea Herald". Koreaherald.com. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  6. "S Korea president sorry for 'unsavoury' act". Aljazeera. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  7. "BBC News - South Korea apology for Yoon Chang-jung US sex scandal". BBC. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  8. "[프로필] 윤창중 대통령 당선인 수석 대변인". News1. 2012-12-24. Archived from the original on 11 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  9. "Yoon Chang Jung, South Korean President's Spokesman, Fired After 'Disgraceful Incident' In U.S". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  10. "윤창중, 靑진술서 '엉덩이 터치·본인 노팬티' 시인" : 네이버 뉴스 (in Korean). News.naver.com. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  11. "Blue House spokesperson could be tried for sexual assault". Hankyoreh. May 11, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  12. "Yoon Chang-jung ordered to be kept away from president's entourage in US". Hankyoreh. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  13. "'성추행 의혹' 윤창중 靑 대변인 전격 경질". obsnews. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  14. "(3rd LD) Park apologizes over alleged sexual misconduct by ex-spokesman" (in Korean). Yonhap News. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  15. '윤창중 스캔들' 靑 줄사퇴로 이어지나 : 네이버 뉴스 (in Korean). News.naver.com. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  16. "Ruling party calls for thorough probe into sex scandal" (in Korean). Yonhap News. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  17. CHOE, SANG-HUN (May 10, 2013). "Blue House spokesman flees U.S. in sex scandal". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-12.
  18. [전문]허태열 비서실장, 윤창중 파문 관련 대국민 사과문 : 네이버 뉴스 (in Korean). News.naver.com. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.