Women's groups demand Hong drop out amid 'pig stimulant' controversy
South Korea's women's groups on Tuesday demanded that Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party drop out of the presidential race, following a controversy surrounding his self-professed involvement in a past sex crime.
"Hong's past act constitutes conspiring in a sexual assault and was a clear and grave crime," the Korean Women's Association United said in a statement.
The alliance of 30 groups demanded that Hong immediately give up his candidacy, arguing that he lacks the qualifications to be president.
Hong initially wrote about his role in the incident that took place while he was in university in an autobiographical essay published in 2005. The scandal has drawn fresh attention in the run-up to the May 9 presidential election.
In his memoirs, Hong confessed that he provided a sexual stimulant used to breed farm pigs to his friend who wanted to sleep with a coed while attending Korea University's Law College in Seoul about 40 years ago.
Excerpts of Hong's essay began to spread online last week, sparking public uproar. During Sunday's presidential debate, Hong made an on-air apology but his presidential rivals demanded he withdraw his candidacy.
The women's groups also criticized Hong and his party's supposedly indifferent reaction to the public outcry.
"Talk of tolerating a rape plot that occurred during one's 'hot-blooded years' shows their vulgar perception of sexual violence," the association said. (Yonhap)