Top court upholds sentence for ex-professor who leaked name of late Seoul mayor's alleged sexual harassment victim

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a one-year suspended sentence for Kim Min-woong for leaking the name of the alleged victim in late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s sexual harassment case.

Kim Min-woong, center, speaks to reporters before submitting a petition to the National Human Rights Commission on April 27, 2020, calling for an investigation into human rights violations during the prosecution's investigation of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk. [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a one-year suspended sentence for Kim Min-woong, a former professor at Kyung Hee University’s Global Academy for Future Civilizations, for leaking the name of the alleged victim in late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s sexual harassment case.

Kim was indicted for violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.

In December 2020, Kim shared on Facebook three letters allegedly written by the victim, explicitly revealing her name. Kim's post was titled, “Well, how does it read? These are the letters from a woman who claimed that she had been sexually harassed persistently for four years.”

Twenty-four minutes after posting it, Kim deleted the original post and uploaded a revised version with the victim’s name blurred out. Kim, who shared the letters without the victim’s consent, admitted to all charges during the first trial and received a suspended six-month prison sentence.

However, Kim changed his stance during the appeals trials, claiming he was innocent. He argued that he posted the letters to aid the late mayor’s defense and had not noticed the victim’s name in the letters.

The appeals court rejected Kim’s claim, saying that it was unreasonable for him to say he hadn’t seen the name, given that he had summarized the content of the letters in his post.

The appeals court imposed a stricter sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years, citing the severe public criticism the victim faced with her name recirculated online, as well as Kim’s lack of remorse. The court also ordered him to complete 40 hours of sexual harassment prevention training and 120 hours of community service.

The Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]