'She is my hero': Attorney Soojung Kim's call for gender-sensitive justice
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Author: Jaeeun Lee*
Soojung Kim, Attorney-at-Law and Partner at Jihyang Law Firm, came to the podium with a story.
"Today, I stand here to share the story of 60 lost years, and of an ordinary hero who endured it all and finally reclaimed what was taken."
Speaking on 11 March at the International Women's Day 2026 commemoration event in Seoul, Republic of Korea, hosted by the UN Women Knowledge and Partnerships Centre, Kim told the audience about Mal-ja Choi.
Punished for defending herself
In 1964, 18-year-old Mal-ja Choi reluctantly agreed to walk a man from a neighbouring village, whom she had never met before, to the road near her home outside Busan. He claimed he did not know the way in the dark and refused to leave until she helped him. Then he attacked her. As he forced her to the ground and pushed his tongue into her mouth, she bit down. It was her only means of resistance.
The man filed a complaint against her for grievous bodily harm, claiming she had severed 1.5 centimetres of his tongue. The police concluded that she had acted in self-defence, but prosecutors overruled that decision and had her arrested.
Choi was held in detention for 130 days. The court ordered a virginity examination, questioned why she had not screamed, and suggested she had provoked the attack. Her attacker was never charged with attempted rape and received a lighter sentence than she did. Four months later, he enlisted in the military in full health and went on to live an ordinary life.
Choi spent the next six decades living as a convicted criminal.
"The prosecutors and courts that should have protected her instead turned her act of survival into a crime," Kim told the audience.
Sixty years to be heard
It was not until 2018, at the height of the MeToo movement, that Choi, then in her 70s, walked into Kim's office with a story she had kept to herself for most of her life.
Kim took on the case. In 2020, with the support of the Korea Women’s Hotline, Choi filed for a retrial. Lower courts rejected the request twice. But in December 2024, the Supreme Court overturned those decisions, and in February 2025, the Busan High Court approved the retrial. On 10 September 2025, the Busan District Court delivered its verdict: not guilty.
"The 18-year-old girl who bit her attacker's tongue in resistance," Kim said, "had become a woman of 78 before the courts finally admitted they had been wrong."
An injustice beyond the past
Kim explained that Choi's story cannot be dismissed as a relic of the past.
"Today, all around the world, women who survive sexual violence are still expected to prove they are victims."
Survivors, she said, are told their suffering doesn’t matter. Their clothing and behaviour are scrutinized. Their relationship histories are used to discredit them.
"Sexual violence is not the result of uncontrollable male desire," she said. "It is, without exception, violence against those who are vulnerable. Holding a woman morally responsible for the violence committed against her in order to excuse her attacker is secondary abuse. It is violence disguised as a verdict."
Progress through persistence
Kim closed with a message of resolve, noting that Choi's case had helped establish an important principle in Korean judicial rulings: that courts must apply a gender-sensitive approach when hearing cases of sexual violence, and understand them in the broader context of gender discrimination.
"These changes happened because victims did not give up,” Kim said. “Every one of those struggles has moved the world forward."
"Mal-ja Choi is my hero. She is a hero to women, and to our entire society," Kim added.
Her final call was direct: "No victim should ever again have their right to be a victim put on trial. Together, let us build a world where women are respected simply because they are human."