SEOUL’S metropolitan government Wednesday announced an investigation into allegations against the late mayor Park Won-soon, who committed suicide last week shortly after one of his former secretaries filed a police complaint accusing him of sexual harassment and abuse.

City spokesman Hwang In-sik said the investigation committee would include civic activists and experts but did not specify when it would start or how it would be authorized.

“By forming a joint investigation committee of government officials and civic experts, we will ensure fairness and objectiveness of the investigation,” Hwang said at a news conference at City Hall. “We will discuss with women’s rights organizations and other groups to determine how the committee will be formed and operated and when it could start.”

Hwang criticized “speculative” media reports but gave no specific details about the city’s response to the allegations or Park’s death, including whether city officials had ignored earlier complaints.

“We are going to leave no stone unturned in this case,” he said.

Rescue workers found Park’s body in a wooded area near his residence in northern Seoul last Friday, following a massive search that involved hundreds of officers, dogs and drones after his daughter reported him missing.

Park offered a general apology in a suicide note — handwritten with ink and brush — found at his official residence and released by city authorities.

“I’m sorry to everyone. I thank everyone who has been with me in my life,” he wrote. “I’m sorry to my family, to whom I only caused pain.

“Please cremate [my body] and scatter [the ashes] at my parent’s grave. Goodbye everyone,” he signed off.

Police said there was no sign of foul play at the scene where Park’s body was found but have so far refused to confirm the exact cause of his death.

According to a document purporting to be the statement of Park’s victim, who worked as his personal secretary from 2015, he committed “sexual harassment and inappropriate gestures during work hours,” including insisting she hug him in the bedroom adjoining his office.

After work, she said, he sent her “selfies of himself in his underwear and lewd comments” on a messenger app.

“I brainwashed myself, bearing tremendous fear and humiliation, that all of this was in the interest of Seoul City, myself, and Mayor Park,” she said, according to the document.

The police confirmed a complaint had been filed but declined to confirm the details.

Hours after Park’s burial Monday, a lawyer representing the former secretary spoke to the press on behalf of her client. Kim Jae-ryon claimed Park had sent pictures of himself in his underwear to his secretary, as well as obscene, late-night messages over the encrypted app Telegram. On one occasion, when he saw a bruise on her knee, he pretended to blow air on it to ease the pain but allegedly touched her knee with his lips, Kim said. She called for an investigation of the allegations and whether Park’s staff covered them up, although Park cannot be charged with criminal offenses.

In a letter written by the accuser and read at Monday’s press conference, the alleged victim said she “should have screamed the first time it happened” and she regrets not coming forward earlier.

The former secretary said she had felt “defenseless and weak before the immense power” of Park’s position, often described as the country’s most influential office after the presidency. She said that before Park’s death, she had wanted him to be brought to a court of law and for him to apologize to her “as a fellow human.”

A heavyweight figure in the ruling center-left Democratic party, Park ran South Korea’s sprawling capital — home to almost a fifth of the national population — for nearly a decade.

The longest-serving mayor of Seoul described himself as a feminist.

As Seoul’s mayor, he implemented welfare policies aimed at helping women and was a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement. A former human rights lawyer, in the 1990s Park represented the victim in one of South Korea’s first successful sexual harassment convictions. In the 1980s, he was part of the team of lawyers who represented one of the first women to bring charges of sexual assault against authorities.

So for many in Seoul, last week’s allegations came as a shock.

Reactions were mixed, including both condolences and criticism that he killed himself to avoid punishment.

There was an outpouring of grief from his supporters, some of whom wailed at Seoul National University Hospital as his body was brought in last week.

“Mayor Park, you were an excellent politician,” one poster wrote on Daum, the country’s second-largest portal site.

“But a twist of fate put an end to your journey. I hope you are at ease in heaven.”

Others were more critical of the 64-year-old, accusing him of exploiting his power to harass a subordinate and then taking his own life to “avoid the fallout.”

“I hope Park reflects on his misdeeds and atones in the afterlife,” wrote one user.

Park, a liberal who built his career as a reform-minded politician and a champion of women’s rights, was considered a potential presidential candidate for the elections in 2022.

Park was a student activist in the days of South Korea’s military dictatorship — he was jailed for taking part in a rally against then-president Park Chung-hee — and later became a human rights lawyer.

He founded the Beautiful Foundation — a philanthropic group that promotes volunteerism and community service. It grew into one of the largest nonprofit organizations in South Korea.

He was first elected as Seoul mayor in a 2011 by-election and re-elected 2014 and 2018. His term was originally scheduled to end in 2022.

Park mostly maintained his activism as mayor, lamenting the country’s growing gap between rich and poor, gender inequality, and corrupt ties between large businesses and politicians.

He was also a vocal critic of Japan, which ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to the end of WWII, over what he described as Tokyo’s refusal to sincerely repent for atrocities such as forced labor and a system of sexual slavery for Japanese troops.

Despite positioning himself as a champion of the poor and powerless, Park was criticized for pushing ahead with aggressive redevelopment projects that razed old commercial and housing districts and drove out tenants who couldn’t afford the spike in rents.

During his first terms, Park established himself as a fierce opponent of former conservative President Park Geun-hye and openly supported the millions of protesters who flooded the streets of his city in late 2016 and 2017 calling for her ouster over a corruption scandal.

In recent months, Park Won-soon led an active campaign against the novel coronavirus as it spread in the city, shutting down thousands of nightspots and issuing an administrative order banning rallies in major downtown streets.

He was a vocal supporter of China, offering solidarity with China during the early stages of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In February he announced a plan to ship medical aid worth 600 million won (US$500,000), including face masks and protection gear, to China. He also objected to a proposed ban on all travelers from China entering South Korea.

“There is a tendency to attack some particular group of people and scapegoat them but this is not the right attitude to cope with epidemics,” he said at the time. “Did China or Beijing ban Koreans or Seoul citizens from entering when Seoul was seriously hit by MERS?”

Park offered further support to China by hanging banners in subway stations and on street corners in Seoul that read “Beijing helped us when Seoul was suffering from MERS!,” “Seoul is with you China through difficult times” and “We will take good care of your children studying in Seoul.”

After turning 60 in 2016, he started learning Chinese. His efforts paid off in February when he made a video with a message of support for Chinese people: “Wuhan jiayou, Zhongguo jiayou (Wuhan cheer up, China cheer up).”

In 2019, Park visited Hong Kong to learn about urban regeneration, such as the redevelopment of the Police Married Quarters as an art village. He also visited Shenzhen to learn about nurturing startups.(SD-Agencies)