"not that kind of person"

A few days ago the mayor of Seoul committed suicide.  His secretary, who has yet to be named, has come forward with her story:

"In one account, the lawyer said Park saw a bruise on the secretary’s knee and said he wanted to make her feel better, before he “laid his lips” on the area.

'He summoned the victim to a bed inside a room in his office,' Kim relayed, 'and physically touched her by asking her to embrace him, and invited her to a secret chat room [on the encrypted messaging app] Telegram to constantly send her promiscuous messages and photos of him in his undergarments.'

Kim claimed that the Seoul Metropolitan Government was aware the victim was in pain because she had described her encounters with Park to her colleagues and asked for help. The office, however, did nothing to save her and kept denying Park’s unsolicited sexual advances, saying he’s 'not that kind of person,' the lawyer continued.

 The secretary asked to be transferred to another team, but the request was not acted upon promptly, Kim implied. The lawyer said her first consultation with the secretary took place on May 12."

We all have a long way to go to crush and stamp out workplace sexual harassment, and sexism in general.  But I just choke on the line "not that kind of person."

"commodities from whom a few powerful agencies can squeeze as much income in as short a time as possible"

As we enter 2020, suicide and celebrity suicide remain huge problems in South Korea.  Kim Dae-o writes things are actually getting worse, not better:

"South Korea’s entertainment industry itself has to bear a lot of the responsibility. It treats celebrities as commodities from whom a few powerful agencies can squeeze as much income in as short a time as possible. Many celebrities are spotted as children and are not taught valuable life skills, only how to sing and dance. The situation is worse for female celebrities, with the public more interested in every salacious detail of their lives.

We also have to understand why people feel moved to post vicious comments online. Our freedom of speech and privacy laws that allow commenters to remain anonymous need updating. At the moment in South Korea, someone who urges another social media user to die is fined an average of just $2,000 for their first offence."

It's economic, it's cultural, and it's a public health issue, and nobody knows what an effective answer would look like.