SEOUL: The missing mayor of South Korea’s capital, reportedly embroiled in sexual harassment allegations, was found dead on Friday, more than half a day after giving his daughter a will-like message and then leaving home.

Police said they had located Park Won-soon’s body near a traditional restaurant in wooded hills in northern Seoul, more than seven hours after they launched a massive search for him.

His daughter called police on Thursday afternoon and said her father had given her a will-like verbal message in the morning before leaving home. She didn’t explain the contents of the message, said a police officer who was responsible for the search operation.

Police said they mobilised about 600 personnel and fire officers, drones and tracking dogs to search for Park in the hills, where his cell phone signal was last detected. They said the phone was turned off when they tried to call him.

His daughter called police after she couldn’t reach her father on the phone, the Seoul police officer said.

A Seoul metropolitan government official said Park did not come to work on Thursday for unspecified reasons and had cancelled all of his schedule, including a meeting with a presidential official at his office.

The reason for Park’s disappearance wasn’t clear. The Seoul-based SBS television network reported that one of Park’s secretaries had lodged a complaint with police on Wednesday night over alleged sexual harassment such as unwanted physical contact that began in 2017.

The report, which didn’t cite any source, said the secretary told police investigators that an unspecified number of other female employees at Seoul City Hall had suffered similar sexual harassment by Park.

MBC television carried a similar report.

Police officer Lee Byeong-seok told reporters that Park was last identified by a security camera at the entrance to the hills, more than six hours before his daughter called police to report him missing.

Fire officer Jeong Jin-hyang told reporters on Thursday night that rescuers used dogs to search dangerous areas on the hills.

Park, 64, a long-time civic activist and human rights lawyer, was elected Seoul mayor in 2011. He became the city’s first mayor to be voted to a third term in June 2018.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2020