Jang Kyung-tae, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker accused of molesting a female secretary at the National Assembly, said on the 30th, "I will file a complaint for false accusation," adding, "There was no molestation. This case is a dating violence case." He argued that there was a commotion at the time, including police being dispatched after the victim's boyfriend hurled verbal abuse and committed violence, and that there was no molestation at all. In the complaint, female secretary A said Jang attended a dinner with aides from another lawmaker's office and molested her, and that people nearby tried to dissuade and stop him during the incident.
At a National Assembly press conference that day, Jang said, "Everyone present was a victim of the verbal abuse and violence of the person who claimed to be (the female secretary's) boyfriend, and the matter was distorted by some skewed reports." He also said, "False accusation and dating violence are very serious crimes," adding, "Destroying evidence and plotting to hide one's own crime or for political gain is a petty crime. I will reveal the truth and respond forcefully."
Jang said, "I joined (the dinner) late at the invitation of an acquaintance that day. It was an open jokbal restaurant in Yeouido, and there were six aides from other lawmakers' offices—four women and two men," adding, "Suddenly a man appeared, started shouting loudly, and began to use violence, and I left the place. I later heard that someone even called the police to stop the man's violent behavior and that the situation was settled only after the police and the complainant's younger sister arrived." He continued, "If the police had been dispatched because of molestation at the time, wouldn't I already, without question, have been investigated? There is no such fact at all."
He said he received messages the next day from a person who had been present, such as "Yesterday was so much fun," "Although there was an unfortunate incident," and "The complainant's boyfriend came and yelled and so on." Another person present also sent messages such as "Thank you for being with us, and thanks to you, I had a good time. Let's meet again next time," Jang said. He went on, "(The person present) made it clear that the 'unfortunate incident' was caused by the complainant's boyfriend, a staffer for the Dongdaemun District Office chief from the People Power Party," adding, "Even just from the KakaoTalk messages, the complainant's claim that people nearby tried to dissuade (me) at the time is entirely different and not true."
Jang argues that the essence of this case is "dating violence" and "assault and secret filming" (secretly filming another person). He said, "The complainant could not even go to work the next day due to the boyfriend's confinement and assault, and colleagues were worried about the complainant as a victim of dating violence," adding, "After that, reporting by TV CHOSUN began with a tip from the boyfriend, and the complainant, on the contrary, said, 'It is a video secretly taken by a reporter. If the video is released, I will file a complaint,' indicating there was no harm. This directly contradicts the molestation claim in the complaint."
According to police, A filed a complaint with the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul on the 25th accusing Jang of quasi-forcible molestation. A claimed Jang molested her at a restaurant in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo District, in Oct. last year during the National Assembly audit. Immediately after the accusation became known, the Democratic Party ethics inspection team began a fact-finding probe at the direction of party leader Jung Chung-rae.