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The lacking mayor of South Korea’s capital, reportedly embroiled in sexual harassment allegations, was found dead early Friday, greater than half a day after giving his daughter a will-like message after which leaving house, police mentioned.
Police mentioned they positioned Park Won-soon’s physique close to a standard restaurant in wooded hills in northern Seoul, greater than seven hours after they launched a massive search for him.
Police gave no additional particulars, together with the reason for dying.
His daughter referred to as police on Thursday afternoon and mentioned her father had given her “a will-like” verbal message within the morning earlier than leaving house. She did not clarify the contents of the message, mentioned an officer on the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who was accountable for the search operation.
Police mentioned they mobilized about 600 police and fireplace officers, drones and monitoring canine to search for Park within the hills, the place his cellphone sign was final detected. They mentioned the cellphone was turned off after they tried to name him.
His daughter referred to as police after she could not attain her father on the cellphone, the Seoul police officer mentioned, requesting anonymity as a result of she was not approved to talk to the media concerning the matter.
Kim Ji-hyeong, a Seoul Metropolitan Government official, mentioned Park didn’t come to work on Thursday for unspecified causes and had canceled all of his schedule, together with a gathering with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall workplace.
The motive for Park’s disappearance wasn’t clear. The Seoul-based SBS tv community reported that certainly one of Park’s secretaries had lodged a grievance with police on Wednesday night time over alleged sexual harassment equivalent to undesirable bodily contact that started in 2017. The SBS report, which did not cite any supply, mentioned the secretary informed police investigators that an unspecified variety of different feminine workers at Seoul City Hall had suffered related sexual harassment by Park.
MBC tv carried the same report.
Both the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Park’s workplace mentioned they could not verify the stories.
Police officer Lee Byeong-seok informed reporters that Park was final recognized by a safety digicam at 10:53 a.m. on the entrance to the hills, greater than six hours earlier than his daughter referred to as police to report him lacking.
Fire officer Jeong Jin-hyang informed reporters on Thursday night time that rescuers used canine to search harmful areas on the hills.
Park, 64, a longtime civic activist and human rights lawyer, was elected Seoul mayor in 2011. He grew to become town’s first mayor to be voted to a 3rd time period in June 2018. A member of President Moon Jae-in’s liberal Democratic Party, he had been thought of a possible presidential candidate in 2022 elections.
Park had largely maintained his activist colours as mayor, criticizing what he described because the nation’s rising social and financial inequalities and corrupt ties between massive companies and politicians.
As a lawyer, he was credited with profitable the nation’s first sexual harassment conviction. He has additionally been an outspoken critic of Japan’s colonial-era insurance policies towards Korea, together with the mobilization of Korean and different girls as intercourse slaves for Japanese troopers.
Park additionally established himself as a fierce opponent of former conservative President Park Geun-hye and overtly supported the thousands and thousands of people that flooded town’s streets in late 2016 and 2017 calling for her ouster over a corruption scandal.
Park Geun-hye, a daughter of late authoritarian chief Park Chung-hee, was formally faraway from workplace in March 2017 and is presently serving a decades-long jail time period on bribery and different costs.
Seoul, a metropolis of 10 million folks, has turn into a brand new heart of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea because the nation eased its inflexible social distancing guidelines in early May. Authorities are struggling to hint contacts amid surges in instances linked to nightclubs, church providers, an enormous e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sellers in Seoul.
Park Won-soon led an aggressive anti-virus marketing campaign, shutting down 1000’s of nightspots and banning rallies in main downtown streets.
ALSO READ | Seoul mayor reported missing, his phone off, search underway
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