ABUSE CASE OF BELGIUM AMBASSADOR'S WIFE

[Anchor Lead]

It recently made news headlines that the wife of Belgium’s ambassador stationed in Korea slapped a clothing store employee. The family of the employee has now released footage of the incident. With no apologies, the ambassador’s wife is not responding to a police summon saying she has checked into the hospital.

[Pkg]

April 9th. A clothing store at Seoul’s Yongsan-gu district. One woman shoves an employee, points her finger and then slaps her in the face. The attacker is the wife of Belgium’s ambassador to Seoul. She left the store after looking around, but she was wearing the same clothes as the ones sold at the shop. The surprised employee followed her but after realizing it was her clothes, offered an apology. But the ambassador’s wife came back to the store and carried out the violent acts. The employee’s face was red and swollen after getting slapped. She said it’s understandable the customer was angry but using violence can’t be justified. Her family expressed hope that people holding service sector jobs would not experience such mistreatment. The ambassador’s wife made no apologies and has not responded to a police summon last week to appear for questioning. It's highly unlikely she will be punished for the act. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which South Korea is also a signatory, stipulates that the diplomats' family members are not subject to criminal trials in the country they are stationed in. Seoul’s foreign ministry vowed to cooperate with the investigation but hasn’t taken any measure yet.

[Soundbite] Kim Bong-chul (Prof. Hankuk Univ. of Foreign Studies）: "The Foreign Ministry can call in the ambassador and convey Seoul’s stance and strong regret. That can be one way to address the issue."

Amid growing public criticism, the Belgian embassy belatedly responded by saying the ambassador’s wife is hospitalized for cerebral infarction and that hopefully she can respond to the police summons. But the embassy added that respecting the rule of law is an intrinsic value shared by both countries.