KOREA
The Hankyoreh
New book describes a life of enduring father’s abuse, and the hope of drawing attention to social ill
By Lee You-jin, staff reporter
‘When light hits a teardrop, it twinkles’, wrote Eun Su-yeon (a pseudonym) in an essay released on Aug. 15. It is the first writing by a victim of sexual violence by relatives published in Korea. The writer was sexually abused for 9 years from when she was in 5th grade of elementary school. The perpetrator was her own father, who was a pastor. When she was in 6th grade, she had to have an abortion.
When Eun was a freshman in university, she was dragged to a motel by her father. She managed to escape to a police station after pleading with the motel owner that she had been kidnapped.
Her father was arrested. He served seven years in prison and was released. In the past, under South Korean law, for a case of sexual abuse to move forward, the alleged victim had to make a formal accusation. That law has been changed and it is now possible to punish the offender without victim’s accusation.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.