“I am ready to take all punishment, including legal responsibilities for my crimes,” said Lee Youn-taek, a prominent theater director accused of sexual harassing an actress.
SEOUL, South Korea — One of South Korea’s most prominent theater directors apologized on Monday for sexually abusing actresses, part of a slowly building #MeToo movement in a deeply male-dominated society.
“I feel so ashamed and crushed,” Lee Youn-taek, 66, a former artistic director of the National Theater of Korea, said at a news conference in Seoul. “I am ready to take all punishment, including legal responsibilities for my crimes.”
Mr. Lee’s apology on Monday came five days after a Facebook post by a former actress set off a cascade of abuse accusations against him.
“I could not refuse. He was the king of the world where I belonged,” said the former actress, Kim Soo-hee, describing how Mr. Lee had called her to his hotel room. “When I opened the door, I saw him lying on the bed, and as expected, he ordered me to give him a massage. After a while, he suddenly took his pants off.”
In South Korea, men still dominate the top echelons of government, business and the arts, presiding over a strictly hierarchical code that makes women particularly vulnerable to abuse and bias.
Women’s rights advocates have long warned that male supervisors exploit the country’s command-and-compliance work culture, where an employee’s personal relationship with her bosses often determines her chances for promotion.
Mr. Lee’s admission on Monday attested to the lasting nature of the problem. “This is a very bad thing that has been happening customarily for the past 18 years,” he said.
South Korea has made strides on women’s rights in recent years, as more women have moved into the government, judiciary and corporate world. Long gone are the days when women in a Korean family were not allowed to eat at the same table as men or had to wait until men were finished. Government agencies and big corporations have instituted mandatory classes on harassment in recent years.
Still, in this deeply patriarchal society, sons in many families still get the lion’s shares of inheritances from parents, and in workplaces, women are often treated like temporary employees expected to quit once they marry.
The World Economic Forum ranks the country 118th of 144 in terms of gender equality.
