A public official of the Seoul city government took his life in a motel room by intentional carbon monoxide poisoning, Monday.

The police said the 39-year-old surnamed Park had worked as a 7th grade civil servant for two months, before breaking into tears in front of his mother complaining of his work being “too tough” and disappearing shortly after.

His mother reported him as missing to the police, who tracked the location of Park’s cell phone and found his body at a motel located in Jegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu next to burnt-out coal briquette. He left no will. 

Park had suffered a fifth class brain lesions, which meant he could carry out most of the essential daily acts such as maintaining personal hygiene and climbing up and down stairs, albeit with minor difficulties.

He first held a position as 5th public official in special service at the National Assembly, then as a 9th grade public official at another government agency, before he was hired as a 7th grade official at the Seoul City Hall this January. He received a month’s training before being assigned to the department where he worked until his death.

The Seoul City spokesperson expressed condolences and regrets at Park’s death, saying that he never showed particular signs of distress at work.

The spokesperson cautiously offered that Park had “debts from the business he ran prior to getting governmental job. We knew that he took sleeping pills.”

Around the end of last year, two public officials took their lives by jumping off the 13-story Seosomun Building in Seoul, provoking some to lash out at the rigid working culture and the pressure for promotion that led to overheated competition among civil servants.

In a move to alleviate workplace pressures, Seoul City in March had put forth a number of measures to innovate group culture. It actively recommended officials to take holidays, while drawing up guidelines for work according to each official’s position and year of experience. Those who had more work than they could handle had their duties redistributed while those placed in so-called undesired departments were interviewed to analyze individual cases.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)