Kwon In Suk

Kwon In Suk
Born	1964 (age 52–53)
Nationality	South Korean
Alma mater	Seoul National University
Occupation	Labor organizer, feminist studies professor
Employer	Myongji University
Known for	Inspiration for the formation of the Korean Women's Associations United
Korean name
Hangul	권인숙
Hanja	權仁淑
Revised Romanization	Gwon Insuk
McCune–Reischauer	Kwŏn Insuk

Kwon In Suk (also Kwŏn Insuk or Insook; born 1964) is a former South Korean labor organizer who inspired women in South Korea to form the Korean Women's Associations United (KWAU). Kwon is the first woman to bring charges of sexual assault against the South Korean government. She was also considered by historian Namhee Lee to be "an emblematic figure of South Korea in the 1980s; she embodied the passion, the ideals, and the conflicting aspirations of the 1980s democratization movement." Kwon later became a feminist scholar in South Korea.

As a middle school student, Kwon recalls feeling "duped" by the Korean government in power. She had been involved with student movements at the time, and said that "It was hard to swallow the betrayal and anger against adults to had fed lies to the young." Kwon went on to become a student activist in the democratic movement while in college.

Later, as a Seoul National University student, she obtained a blue-collar job by not reporting her university credentials. She lied about her education in order to "organize factory workers into a trade union." In June 1986, she went to the police station in Puch'ŏn in order to address charges that she had falsified documents. She had also been charged for taking part in a "violent demonstration." Kwon was sexually abused at the police station by an officer, Mun Kwi-dong. Kwon went on to file sexual abuse charges against the government, which were initially considered "exaggerated" by authorities, even though the government had already admitted that she was "forced to remove her jacket and T-shirt and was beaten 'in the breasts three or four times' on two occasions during the questioning." In July 1986, a rally in protest of her treatment was sponsored by Kim Yong-sam and the New Korea Democratic Party, but was stopped by police with tear gas.

During press coverage of the case, the South Korean government micromanaged how the press would report what happened to Kwon, including guidelines that changed the tone of the case and which also cast Kwon as a liar and possibly a communist. The initial reporting of the story was a single line at the bottom of the social page in Korea Daily. A spokesman for the government called her allegations of sexual assault a "routine tactic used by student radicals." Eventually the police did admit that "she had been sexually molested during interrogation."

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