<![CDATA[It's attempted rape, not just trespassing: K-stalker in viral video gets charge changed as South Korean police bow to public outrage]>

Police in South Korea were forced to bow to public pressure on Friday as anger mounted over a viral video showing a woman being stalked to her flat in Seoul.

Outrage over the 80-second clip " which shows a man in a baseball cap trying to force his way into the woman's flat in the Sillim-dong area " grew steadily after it was shared on social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Tuesday.

Viewers became even more incensed when the police said the man " who turned himself in after the clip went viral " would be charged only with trespassing, rather than attempted rape.

Many observers said the authorities' lax stance showed the extent of gender inequality in the patriarchal nation.

"Women's bodies and safety are not valued by the authorities," said Michael Hurt, a sociologist at the University of Seoul Centre for Global Culture and Social Empathy. "There are myriad cases of the police blaming the victim even when women who were assaulted have the courage to come forward."

The police tried to justify their original decision by saying the footage " obtained from a CCTV camera " did not show evidence of a "physical attack" and that they believed the man was drunk and had no recollection of his actions at the time.

Those claims prompted widespread condemnation and a petition to the presidential palace which had garnered 79,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon, when the police backed down and agreed to investigate the case as an "attempted rape".

"The issue doesn't seem to concern men, but because of my daughter, my sisters, my girlfriend, it could be my problem too," stated the petition. "Please strengthen the punishment for men who invade the homes of women living alone."

Elsewhere, netizens commented that such incidents were in fact common for many women living in the conservative nation. "In reality, 90 per cent of victims of violent crimes are women," tweeted @Nearby89. "Women in their 20s and 30s who live in less secure residential environment often live in fear."

"This actually happened before," said one Facebook user. "A stranger followed me home from a subway station and almost the whole way to my house."

"They weren't kidding when they said she just barely escaped. The way he reached for the door just as it closed makes me cringe," another commentator on YouTube said.

The outrage over the video " and the subsequent lack of police action " comes as South Korea's own #MeToo movement gathers momentum, and K-pop star Goo Hara is reported to have attempted suicide after being linked to a sex video blackmail scandal.

A former member of girl group Kara, Goo was found unconscious in her Gangnam home on Sunday, following months of being shamed across social media after an ex-boyfriend threatened to release an alleged sex video of her to the public. The singer, currently embroiled in a court case against her former partner, released a statement apologising for her suicide attempt.

"[Sorry for] causing concern to everyone and causing a commotion," Goo was quoted as saying by Japan's Sankei Sports media outlet.

Experts say the nation's culture of victim blaming needs to be addressed.

"There is an overarching belief that only bad people do bad things, and bad people who place themselves in bad situations have bad things happen to them," said sociologist Hurt. "And that's one reason why women don't report assault or crime here, or when it comes to violence against their bodies, they generally are told to keep quiet.

"Danger exists for women because men get the very clear social message that even if they violently assaulted a woman, if she was wearing a short skirt or there were rumours about her promiscuity, they'll probably get off the hook," he added. "Essentially, men don't get prosecuted for violently assaulting women."

Notions of gender-based violence such as the "wrist grab" are often romanticised and idealised in K-dramas and popular culture in a nation where the concept of consent is not well understood, said Mano Lee, a self-described feminist living in Seoul.

"I think many men think they 'deserve' women like they are some sort of trophy," she said. "Many seem to think women are just being shy when they say no."

Women who live alone often go to extremes to stay safe at home, Lee said. "Some women hang men's clothes while doing their laundry to give the appearance that they live with a man; and they also take off the invoice stickers with their addresses and names from delivery boxes when throwing them away."

According to police data, stalking crimes in South Korea have risen in recent years " from 297 reported cases in 2014 to 436 cases in 2017, an increase of about 47 per cent. Violence against women continues to be a major issue, with 52 per cent of murder victims being female " higher than India's 40.8 per cent and China's 21.9 per cent rate, according to a 2014 report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.

South Korea shares that female murder rate with neighbours Hong Kong and Japan " the highest in Asia.

South Korea was also rocked by the 2016 murder of a 20-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in a public toilet by a male stranger who told police "he hated women for belittling him".

Dubbed the "Gangnam Station Murder", the incident led to a series of public protests as women held signs with slogans like "For [us] women, everywhere is Gangnam Station" " alluding to the lack of public safety and the prevalence of gender-based violence.

"You often hear that Korea is such a safe and wonderful country, especially from the American point of view, where there are no guns," Hurt said. "But in a balanced discussion you always hear women talking about the fact that they don't safe feel safe here at all."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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