Rep. Kim Hee-jung of the ruling Saenuri Party hosted a symposium on how to address the additional emotional injuries inflicted on sexual abuse victims at the National Assembly Parliamentarians’ Hall on Sept. 29.

Bae Sung-min, director of the Incheon Sunflower Center; Kong Jung-shik, director of Korea Criminal Psychology Center; and Hong Jong-hee, chief of the Girls’ Policy Team at the Ministry of Justice, reviewed the loopholes in investigations and trials into sex crimes against girls and suggested ways to correct them.

Yoon Yeo-jin, director-general of Press Watch Center, and Kim Won-ki, an activist of Footprint, a civic organization for eradicating sex crimes, looked into the problems stemming from press reports of sex crime victims and discussed how to correct them.

Rep. Kim said in her opening speech, “Laws on sex crimes have been trimmed, including the abolition of offenses prosecuted upon application of an authorized party, but in the course of the execution of laws, there are still some loopholes, which need to be adequately addressed in order to upgrade policies on sex crimes once again.”

Rep. Kim stressed the need for offering effective support, lest sex crime victims and their families should suffer damages from the press divulging the names of the victims in the course of investigations and trials.

Chun Soo-jin, president of Footprint, emphasized that investigations and trials of perpetrators of sexual violence against girls should be made in the interests of sex crime victims and on the protection of children’s rights.