ROK Naval Lieutenant Commits Suicide After Claiming Superior Officer Rape Her
The ROK Naval Captain is claiming that the sex was consensual, but regardless the Captain shouldn’t be sleeping with a junior officer in the first place. However, I am not sure if the ROK military has any guidelines against such behavior; if not it should:
A female Navy lieutenant, under the purview of the Navy’s headquarters at the Gyeryongdae compound, was found dead in her home on 5:40 p.m. Wednesday.
While the naval military police view the incident as a suicide, they arrested a male navy captain under allegations of having sexually assaulted the lieutenant the night before.
Her colleagues attempted to reach her by phone after noting her absence in the workplace.
When they went to her home and found she had apparently hanged herself, they contacted military police.
Near her body was a memo saying, “I guess I’m leaving empty-handed like this,” and “By tomorrow, I won’t be a person of this world.”
“There are no signs of forced entry,” military police said.
“She told me she was raped by a superior,” a friend told her family, who then told police.
The military police arrested a naval captain who was at the domicile.
According to naval military police, the two officers drank into the night at a departmental dinner. Police suspect the captain raped her after she lost consciousness.
“I can’t remember clearly cause I was drunk,” he said, adding that while they had sex, he maintains it was consensual. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
Sex between people at the office always ends badly for everyone.
It is truly sad that the woman thought suicide was even an option.
That said, the “I was drunk” excuse ought to be a Capital Offense, as it always seems to be used to attempt to excuse the most heinous acts. I think the Nazis tried that one, too..
It wasn’t that long ago that subordinates were practically obligated to socialize and drink (heavily) on demand with their superiors in Korean office culture. While that has had a lot of public pressure to change in the past few years, it may still play a big role in Korea’s military culture.
Suicide brings a degree of credibility to rape allegations.
…or maybe it indicates shame after drunken conscent?
…lot of ways to look at this.
It’s too bad she felt that was the best way out of the situation.
The lesson, as always, ladies, take personal responsibility when drinking by thinking ahead and managing the situation before it becomes a problem.
Gentlemen, this lesson applies to you as well.