Former PPP lawmaker denies sexually assaulting secretary, announces temporary departure from party

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Former PPP lawmaker denies sexually assaulting secretary, announces temporary departure from party

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 16:12 Updated: 05 Mar. 2025, 16:44

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Former People Power Party Rep. Chang Je-won speaks during a parliamentary meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Feb. 26, 2023. [NEWS1]

Former People Power Party Rep. Chang Je-won on Wednesday denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a secretary while serving as vice president at a university in Busan and announced that he would "temporarily leave the party."

On his Facebook account, Chang dismissed the accusations as “false” and said he would leave the party until he is cleared of the allegations. He added that he did not want to “burden the party” during this serious time.

Chang also questioned the timing of the complaint, raising suspicions of a possible conspiracy behind the “abrupt” legal filing nearly a decade later.

According to police, Chang, 58, is under investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting a secretary during his tenure as vice president of the university in November 2015. During questioning, the secretary testified that Chang assaulted her after having drinks at a gathering following a photo shoot for campaign posters ahead of the general elections.

Police said that the secretary said she blacked out after accompanying Chang and another person to a hotel bar after having two rounds of drinks. She also claimed that Chang later gave her some 20 million won ($15,000), allegedly as part of a settlement.

Regarding the delay in filing the complaint, the secretary told police that she had been “afraid to tell the truth” because of Chang’s political influence in his region, Busan. She added that she ultimately decided to come forward after enduring “years of self-destruction and trauma.”

Following media reports on the case Tuesday, Chang strongly denied the allegations and questioned the motives behind what he called a “provocative” sexual assault accusation at a politically sensitive time.

His attorney also issued a statement the same day, asserting that it was “not a matter of Chang failing to recall the incident, but rather that he never committed such an act.”

Chang, a former three-term lawmaker representing Sasang District in Busan, has been considered a close aide to President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently awaiting the Constitutional Court's ruling regarding his impeachment hearing. From 2012 to 2015, he served as vice president of Busan Digital University, founded by his father. He stepped away from his political career after announcing in December 2023 that he would not run in the 22nd general elections last year.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [[email protected]]