By Cassidy Liu
Copy Editor
On Feb. 26, Korean news outlet SBS FunE revealed an alarming KakaoTalk group chat which exposed many of Korea’s top K-pop idols and celebrities involved in illegal solicitation of prostitution and drugs. The activities occurred at the Burning Sun, a club partially owned by Lee Seung-Hyun, better known as Seungri from the K-pop boy group Big Bang, and he is currently under further investigation for his crimes.
Jung Joon-Young, a famous Korean actor, television personality, and singer, was also revealed to be a main contributor to illegally spreading sexually explicit videos of women, all of which were taken without their consent. On March 12, Jung made a public apology to his fans. Afterwards, his contract with his company was terminated. He was arrested by the police on March 21 and is now facing up to seven and a half years in prison.
In addition to Jung, there were many other idols charged with lesser crimes for participating in the group chat, all of whom voluntarily left their contracting company and retired from show business.
The Burning Sun first came under scrutiny on Jan. 28, when a man was kicked out of the club for allegedly trying to harass women, but it was later disclosed that he was being assaulted by the club’s manager. In February, the club dealt with multiple allegations involving employees and club attendees distributing drugs and participating in date rape.
“This scandal demonstrates how women are being treated as objects in Korean society,” CedarBough Saeji, a postdoctoral fellow in Korean studies at the University of British Columbia, told Los Angeles Times. “K-pop is choking with sexual objectification. The message seems to be that women are valued for being sexualized props.”
With the scandal, the #MeToo movement became fueled with protesting South Korean women in an attempt to shed light on the sexual exploitation in Korean society. CBS News reports that an estimated “20,000 Korean women last summer marched in rallies to protest the social problem,” with a nationwide epidemic of minicams appearing in private places such as hotels and restrooms.
Korea has been dealing with the spycam epidemic for decades now, and their new technology is only making the cameras more easily installed. BBC reported that in 2017, there were more than 6,000 cases of secret videotaping reported in the country, with only 5,400 people arrested and an additional two percent being sent to jail.
In 2016, there was another infamous case in which Jung was accused to having secretly filmed a sexual encounter with his girlfriend but was ultimately acquitted after the investigation.
In response to the severity of the latest scandal, South Korean President, Moon Jae-In, decided to reopen the 10 year old suicide case of Korean actress Jang Ja-Yeon. Before Jang committed suicide, she left a detailed note of the sexual favors her company forced her to give by her company to prominent businessmen in the entertainment industry.
“K-pop is usually seen as a business; it’s a cold-blooded business by entertainment companies,” said Suk-young Kim, a Korean studies professor at UCLA. “The main concern for entertainment companies is to sell the best-selling products that appeal to a wide range of consumers for maximum profit. And what goes unaddressed is the ethical implications and human beings and feelings.”
