The police has summoned the chairman of MPK Group, which runs the Korean pizza chain Mr. Pizza, over an allegation that he assaulted a security personnel for pulling down the shutter of a building where he was having dinner.
Investigators at the Seodaemun Police Station said Monday that they have demanded that MPK chairman Jung Woo-hyun appear for questioning by Thursday.
MPK chairman Jung Woo-hyun
The investigators said the chairman was dining at a restaurant owned by his group on Saturday, but became angry after learning that the security guard had locked the building’s doors with him still inside. The guard, identified only by his surname Hwang, said he tried to apologize for causing inconvenience and explained that he was only following work rules to close the shutter after 10 p.m. The chairman, however, slapped him twice between his neck and chin, Hwang said. The police have reportedly secured surveillance footage of the alleged assault.
The MPK group denied the allegation, saying that the chairman grabbed the guard by the collar. He accidentally hit the guard while flailing as employees tried to pull him off.
“The police statement makes it sound as if the chairman assaulted the guard on purpose, but that’s not the case,” a spokesman for Mr. Pizza told The Korea Herald.
By Won Ho-jung (
hjwon@heraldcorp.com)