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Male rights activist jumps off bridge

Controversial male rights activist Sung Jae-gi on Friday jumped off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge, one of the main bridges over Han River.

Moments before Sung jumped off the bridge, he wrote on Twitter, “It is very shameful. I am sorry. I will remorse for the rest of my life.”

Despite efforts by local fire department to rescue him, Sung remained missing as of 4:34 p.m., over an hour after he had plunged into Han River.

Sung, the head of a men’s rights organization Man of Korea, wrote on the homepage of his organization Thursday that he is throwing himself off a bridge on Friday. He explained the reason for his stunt as “to raise money to run Man of Korea and pay its debts.”

“Dear citizens. I now put my life on the line and beg you. Please give Man of Korea another chance,” Sung wrote, while posting nine different bank accounts for his supporters to wire money to. Sung also handpicked his successor in case “anything went wrong,” and said he will pick any random bridge as his jump site as to not be a nuisance to the police or the fire department.

The 46-year-old activist is known for his relentless promotion of men’s rights, claiming that men can also be a minority in South Korean society. He is notorious for publicly blurting out disparaging remarks toward women and has worked to discontinue menstruation leave and other benefits for working women.

Many argued that Sung’s tireless work to support the rights of men was misplaced, given that South Korea is an already male-dominant society.

Only 9.1 percent, or 272 out of 2,993 executive jobs in government departments and public firms are occupied by women, according to a January report by Alio, a website compiling management information of the public sector. Over half of the corresponding organizations had no female board members.

The OECD’s annual employment outlook recently placed Korea’s employment rate for women at 53.5 percent, which is below the OECD average of 57.2 percent.

(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)