(As the spotlight turned on Kim, he attempted to fly to Thailand for unspecified reasons but was identified at the airport and turned away by immigration officials now he is barred from leaving the country.) Then in mid-April prosecutors arrested the former construction company boss who is accused of providing women and leaking the sex video starring Kim, and Kim himself may also be detained and charged. Although the Jang case has so far had only one former actress -also previously managed by the same agency as Jang-speak out as a witness to the allegations raised in Jang’s suicide notes, the office of prosecutors formed a special committee to investigate the case. Just as the Burning Sun scandal started to, literally, burn up, authorities turned their attention to these two previous scandals involving Jang and Kim. (Recently a broadcaster aired much higher-quality footage, which appeared to show without doubt that Kim was in fact the man on tape.)
Despite abundant digital evidence, the prosecutors decided not to pursue charges claiming that the key video was not of high enough quality to prove the identity of the person in the video. Kim, a prosecutor by profession, was accused of receiving these sexual services, at least some of which may have been non-consensual, as a form of bribe. In 2013, then-deputy justice minister Kim Hak-eui had to step down after only six days in his post following the release of a video that seemed to show him having sex at the country house of a construction tycoon. The investigation, however, ended when prosecutors concluded insufficient evidence supported her claim. She left behind handwritten notes along with a list of very powerful men-including senior management of a major newspaper-that she allegedly had been forced to have sex with by her management agency. The first was centered on a relatively unknown actress named Jang Ja-yeon, who committed suicide in 2009 in the final stretch of shooting for that year’s hit drama Boys Over Flowers. In fact, the Burning Sun scandal has served to remind the public of two other scandals from the recent past. The revelations have confirmed the belief, held by many, that South Korean elite easily get away with wrongdoings, even when ordinary citizens are held to strict moral and legal standards. In the end, the real damage from the scandal is not to K-pop only, but also to the reputation of the country’s governing class, who have always had difficulty with gaining the public’s respect. The Burning Sun case brought to the fore issues of sex work and drug use in South Korea, not to mention corruption that implicates entertainment industry figures as well as police, prosecutors, media companies and even high-level politicians.Īlthough the Seoul District Police are expected to hand down their final recommendations for prosecution of Seungri-the K-pop star at the center of the scandal-in early May, it is likely that questions about the behaviors of South Korea’s elite will continue to reverberate throughout 2019. It has been sending shock waves through South Korean society for the past few weeks, exposing the culture of misogyny among young male celebrities, many of whom have been caught bragging about sexual conquests and sharing illegally made photos and videos of intercourse.īut beyond the cavalier and criminal ways that some of them have treated women, the scandal has also exposed a range of additional illegalities. The biggest news in South Korea remains the Burning Sun scandal.
0 kommentar(er)
