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Obtained Records of Disciplinary Actions for Sex Crimes at Seoul Metro Over the Last 5 Years: "27 Employees Disciplined for Sexual Misconduct"

[비즈한국] Recently, Seoul Metro has been embroiled in controversy following allegations that an employee committed sexual misconduct against a job seeker. Looking back, the incident involving Seoul Metro employee Jeon Joo-hwan, who stalked and murdered a colleague, caused major social shock. It has now been confirmed that a significant number of Seoul Metro employees have faced internal disciplinary action for sex crimes over the past five years.

BizHankook obtained data on the status of disciplinary actions for sex crimes at Seoul Metro over the last five years. According to the data received from Seoul Metro, a total of 27 employees were disciplined for sexual misconduct between 2020 and March 2025. A year-by-year breakdown shows: 4 in 2020, 2 in 2021, 7 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 10 in 2024, and 1 from January to March 2025.

Disciplinary measures at Seoul Metro include automatic termination, dismissal (pa-myeon), removal (hae-im), demotion, suspension, and salary reduction. Automatic termination refers to the automatic loss of one's position or the severance of employment due to specific legal restrictions, such as committing a crime or serious negligence. While both "pa-myeon" and "hae-im" result in the termination of the employment relationship, "pa-myeon" carries greater penalties, such as reduced severance pay and restrictions on re-employment.

Of the 27 individuals disciplined for sex crimes, the breakdown is as follows: 4 automatic terminations, 4 dismissals (pa-myeon), 1 removal (hae-im), 1 demotion, 14 suspensions, and 3 salary reductions. In many cases, the punishment remained at the level of suspension. By type of sex crime, sexual harassment was the most frequent with 14 cases. This was followed by 6 cases of molestation, 4 cases of illegal filming, and 3 other cases.

Previously, Seoul Metro employee Jeon Joo-hwan caused significant social outrage in 2022 by stalking and murdering a colleague at Sindang Station. Recently, another Seoul Metro employee was caught up in allegations of committing sexual misconduct against a job seeker. Seoul Metro has relieved the employee of their duties, and the police have launched an investigation.

In October of last year, People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jong-yang pointed out, "Since the Sindang Station murder case in 2022, problems such as sexual misconduct in local public institutions do not appear to have improved," adding, "In particular, Seoul Metro, where both parties in the aforementioned incident were employed, accounted for half of all (sexual misconduct) disciplinary cases among local public institutions in the first half of 2024 alone."

Seoul Metro has over 16,000 employees. While it may be difficult to control every individual, critics argue that the organization must make greater efforts to prevent recurrence, given that these issues have already surfaced multiple times.

A Seoul Metro official stated, "We have a system in place where victims can receive assistance when sexual misconduct incidents occur," adding, "Victims are immediately separated, and we request police investigations to ensure a thorough inquiry into the perpetrators. We are taking swift personnel actions in addition to providing relief for the victims."