A government inspection into the case of a woman in her 20s with the Gwangju Fire Headquarters who died before her wedding found that most allegations of power abuse by her superior were true.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination's Government Joint Public Service Discipline Inspection Team said on the 24th, "It was confirmed that the victim was forced to attend office dinners late into the night, forced to drink alcohol, forced to sit next to a superior at office dinners, forced to use improper forms of address, and ordered to perform private labor."
It added, "It was confirmed that, regarding the family's raising of power abuse issues and their request for an investigation into the extreme choice as well as other inspection demands, the competent fire station and others conducted only perfunctory checks and dismissed the inspection requests, and, without authority, obtained the victim's psychological counseling materials and selectively extracted and distorted parts of the counseling content and exposed them internally and externally."
According to the inspection team, while working at the Gwangsan Fire Station in Gwangju, the victim was pressured to attend office dinners and, from July 2024 to October last year over a span of 15 months, attended 24 drinking gatherings. Some dinners went on until dawn, and frequent demands were made such as "Sit between the chief and the Director," "Greet the chief and receive a drink," and "Comfortably call me 'oppa.'"
After the victim took her own life, the bereaved family requested an inspection from the Gwangsan Fire Station, but the station closed the case as "no particular issues," taking only a statement from the victim's superior that there had been three official dinners. In particular, an official personnel document on her separation from service drafted after her death distorted the circumstances to make it seem as if there was a "problem with her boyfriend (fiancé)."
The inspection team asked the National Fire Agency to impose severe disciplinary measures on 17 people, including nine at Gwangsan Fire Station, six at Gwangju Fire Headquarters, and two at the fire agency. It plans to refer two individuals who have already retired to investigative authorities.
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung said, "It is truly deplorable that such old-school public officials still exist," and ordered an inspection led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
At a Cabinet meeting on the 23rd, the president also said, "Thoroughly check the internal organizational culture at each ministry and agency so that the phrase 'power abuse in the workplace' never comes up again."