Seoul: South Korea's "love shot" drinking ritual amounts to sexual harassment if the woman in question is unwilling to take part, the country's top court ruled today.

The Supreme Court found a 48-year-old man guilty of sexual harassment for forcing restaurant waitresses to do a "love shot" in which two people snuggle close and drink with their arms entwined.

"Forcing a love shot when women refuse it... Is tantamount to sexual harassment," Judge Kim Hwang-Sik said in his ruling quoted by Yonhap news agnecy.

The man offered 30 dollars to a 28-year-old waitress in return for a love shot with him at a restaurant in a provincial golf course in 2005. After she refused, he falsely claimed to be the number two man at the course and threatened that she would lose her job. He then threw his arm around her neck and did a love shot, rubbing his cheek against hers.

The unidentified man also forced another waitress to do a love shot with his friend. He had been fined three million won by a lower court but appealed.

Source : PTI