A man was arrested Tuesday morning for vandalizing a window of South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung’s official residence, reportedly “out of anger after hearing the news of An raping his secretary.”
The man in his 30s threw a baseball bat at Gov. An’s residence at Hongseong-gun in South Chungcheong Province at around 8:20 a.m. He was arrested at the scene by private security personnel guarding the residence.
Police confirmed the man to be a party member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, where An was a prominent figure. The suspect had apparently traveled from a different region to express his anger toward the disgraced governor.
Police booked the man for trespassing and damaging An’s residence.
(Yonhap)
(Yonhap)
(Yonhap)
An, a former close aide to the late President Roh Moo-hyun, was elected as governor of South Chungcheong Province in 2010. An competed with incumbent President Moon Jae-in for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate nomination in 2017. He was considered a leading candidate for the next presidential election for his “rational liberal” stance.
On Monday, An’s former secretary said in an interview with a local TV station that she had been raped by the governor multiple times.
Following the shocking revelations, An apologized on Facebook for his actions, saying he would resign from office and halt all political activities. The Democratic Party announced it would seek to expel An.
By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)
