The #MeToo campaign, which is spreading to the political circle, has emerged as the first standard in verifying candidates for the June 13 local elections.

The ruling and opposition parties are competing to be the first to declare a "zero-tolerance policy" on sex offenders and are busy establishing bodies to verify related details. This appears to be a response to the spread of the #MeToo campaign after it spread to the political circle with the "Ahn Hee-jung shock."

The Democratic Party of Korea, which suffered a direct blow due to the rape case involving Ahn Hee-jung, former governor of Chungcheongnam-do, is busy preparing follow-up measures. The Democratic Party held a meeting of the party's Ethics Tribunal and the Public Office Candidate Verification Committee on March 7 and decided to disqualify applicants whose involvement in sexual offenses have been confirmed as well as people who were punished for sexual crimes from candidate nominations.

The Democratic Party also decided to set up a sexual violence crime report and counseling center within the special committee for gender violence. The center will work with the candidate verification committee to investigate the truth and provide counseling for the victims. They are also planning to make it mandatory for the party's candidates to undergo gender-equality education.

During the meeting, the party's leader Choo Mi-ae said, "Regardless of the status of the person, if anyone is involved in corruption, the party will apply the zero-tolerance principle at the highest level."

The Liberty Korea Party also decided to verify possible candidates for any sexual offenses including people reported by or connected to the #MeToo campaign as part of the candidates morality, a major standard in determining candidate nominations.

In a press conference on March 5, Hong Moon-pyo, the chairman of the Liberty Korea Party's candidate nomination management committee said, "We will look again and again at anyone involved in the #MeToo campaign with a strict moral standard. We will identify the person's credibility by using the methods used in the audit of party affairs." This day, the Liberty Korea Party launched a special committee to end sexual violence against women within the party and urged the ruling party to establish a special committee to end sexual violence at the parliamentary level.

In a party meeting, floor leader Kim Sung-tae said, "We need to run a special committee so that the National Assembly can represent the social outcry of the #MeToo campaign."

The Bareun Mirae Party prepared a manual on the prevention of and response to sexual violence within the party and decided to release it on March 8, International Women's Day. They decided to provide necessary legal consultations to protect and support victims and informers through the #MeToo support group that they recently set up.

However, the #MeToo movement within the political circle is spreading as allegations of sexual assault emerged concerning former lawmaker Chung Bong-ju (58, photo), following Ahn.

Pressian, an Internet media outlet quoted the argument of A, a journalist, this day and reported, "In 2011, former lawmaker Chung called A, who was seeking a career in journalism at the time, to a cafe in a Yeouido hotel and sexually assaulted her by trying to kiss her." This day, Chung had prepared an official press conference to announce his bid for Seoul mayor, but abruptly canceled the press conference as soon as the media report came out. A representative of Chung said, "We will delay the declaration of his bid until after he has determined his position. This does not mean that he is abandoning his plans to run in the election."

Chung, who recovered his right to run for public office following a special pardon in December 2017, had been preparing to compete for the party's candidate for Seoul mayor after applying to restore his membership of the Democratic Party last month.

The Seoul office of the Democratic Party plans to have the party membership review board review Chung's eligibility on March 15. Baek Hye-ryun, the spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea said, "Now that a problem has been raised, it will be difficult to reinstate him (Chung) without verification (of the facts)."