A case of school bullying

• Published date: 07 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Earlier this year, "The Glory," a Korean drama series that screened on an OTT platform, became the most-watched non-English program in just a matter of weeks despite dealing with the difficult topic of school bullying. The word "bullying" seems too facile a term for the kind of violence meted out to the victim in the drama which amounted to grievous bodily harm who has third-degree burns inflicted upon her.

Now the abrupt resignation of Chung Sun-sin, President Yoon Suk Yeol's handpicked nominee for the directorship of the National Office of Investigation (NOI), has put the spotlight on the topic of school bullying once again.

Chung's appointment to NOI was controversial from the beginning. Although usually referred to as the Korean equivalent of the FBI, the NOI is in fact a body that sits within the national police force rather than being an independent agency. NOI's purpose is to strengthen the investigative capacity of the police force after taking away much of the investigation powers from the Prosecution Office that was the hallmark of the attempt to defang the latter body. So given that context, appointing a former high-level prosecutor like Chung was seen as a blatant attempt by many to subordinate the NOI to the Prosecution Office compromising its already weak independence.

Having been appointed amid such controversy, it came as a surprise when Chung suddenly announced his resignation barely one day into his appointment. Whenever a candidate for an important government post relinquishes the opportunity or resigns voluntarily, one can be pretty certain that lurking somewhere in the background is either a sex scandal, a corruption scandal, or in the case of Korea, a college admissions scandal. This was the situation for Chung. The impetus for his resignation was the revelation that his son had verbally abused a classmate over an extended period of time in high school.

As more details about the case emerged, it became clear why Chung had acted so swiftly in resigning. It was not merely the fact that Chung's son had engaged in abusive behavior toward a classmate which became so unbearable for the victim that the student tried to take his own life, but also Chung's own involvement that aggravated the case to the extent that there was never a proper acknowledgment nor genuine apology for his son's abusive behavior toward the victim.

This was recorded in as many words by the teachers who were involved in handling the case who noted that Chung and his wife...