By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

A senior diplomat at the Foreign Ministry was suspended from his post yesterday for sexually harassing a female journalist of a foreign news media, dealing a fresh blow to the governmental agency already under attack for the death of South Korean national Kim Sun-il in Iraq last month.

According to sources, the 46-year-old deputy director general-level diplomat kissed the 27-year-old woman on her lips against her will while drinking at a bar in Kangnam, southern Seoul, early this month. The Korean woman, a stringer of a Japanese news outlet’s

Seoul branch, is known to have been on good terms with the official, who graduated from the same school.

Following the event, she ran out of the bar and reported it to her boss, who later demanded an apology from the ministry. The official admitted his fault saying he ``made the mistake under the influence of alcohol,’’ according to sources.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon also apologized to the woman and her boss, who visited the ministry yesterday.

A couple of officials, however, said they understood the case had some ``consensual’’ aspects, though it at any rate proved to be against her will. They were wary of the implications it would have on the already depressed atmosphere of the ministry.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr