The Twisted Scandal Behind TikTok’s Viral Amusement Park Ride
Content Warning
A popular amusement park ride has an unexpectedly dark twist to it.
Disco pang pang (also known as tagada) is a large circular ride that spins and bounces up and down. Riders sit on the edges of the round bowl but with no seatbelts or restraints of any kind, unlike most amusement park rides. However, there are bars behind the riders that they hold onto. Still, the riders frequently lose their grasp once the ride begins playing music, spinning, and bouncing. Consequently, some might fall into each other, making the passengers closer than ever before.
Videos of this amusement park became a viral sensation online, particularly of disco pang pang in South Korea. The DJ, who acts as MC, both playing music and operating the ride, would attempt to “matchmake” riders who were single. Naturally, netizens loved the potential love stories.
@jkvbts_6 😭 #discopangpang #discopangpangkorea #discopangpang🤪 #fypシ゚viral #fypシ゚viral #fyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp
♬ 1 second count / when button pressed / time signal 23(1117365) – QUESS
Some social media users have dedicated their accounts to creating edits of memorable moments, including romantic or legendary. These videos go viral with millions of views.
Despite all the good fun, there’s a dark side. In 2023, the police requested an arrest warrant for the 45-year-old disco pang pang owner, Mr. Gong, who began operating in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, in December 2011. His business expanded across South Korea to eleven areas, including Busan, Daegu, Bucheon in Gyeonggi, and South Chungcheong.
Mr. Gong was suspected of “blackmailing his employees to extort ride payments from teenage girls.” He allegedly threatened them to sell large numbers of tickets, even claiming he was “close to gangsters.”
According to Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police, he specifically ordered his employees ‘to bring elementary school students and naive kids walking on the street’ and sell at least 800 tickets a day.
— KoreaJoongDaily
Consequently, the employees were accused of “forcing teenage girls into prostitution to meet their boss’s target.” Employees would put teens’ purchase of bulk tickets on a tab. Yet, if unable to pay, the customers were allegedly forced into prostitution. Employees even reportedly raped the students and used drugs, such as liquid cannabis, with them but blackmailed men who sexually assaulted the teenagers.
Reportedly, managers paid ₩500,000 KRW (about $380 USD) to one million won to hit their goals. So, disco pang pang DJs would mislead teenage girls in order to sell more tickets, offering vouchers, such as dates with a DJ, to bulk purchasers.
During the investigation, police said some teenage girls were so misled by the employees that some refused to attend investigations, asking police why they are taking their ‘nice oppa [a Korean term, often affectionate, for an older male] into custody.’
— KoreaJoongDaily
Police claimed that Mr. Gong used his illegal profits to establish yet another business but under his wife’s name. He is suspected of making ₩30.0 million KRW (about $22,800 USD) of “criminal proceeds over a year.” Reportedly, he was so successful that he drove a luxury car and lived in a high-end apartment complex in Banpo-dong of Seocho District in southern Seoul, South Korea.
Police began investigating the case after a teenage girl told her close friend that she was forced into having sex by the DJs on Feb. 8.
— KoreaJoongDaily
At least twenty students were reportedly raped and/or forced into prostitution. Around 25 persons were apprehended, with sixteen, including Gong and acquaintances, related to the business, for rape, drug use, forced prostitution, and blackmailing, and twelve were detained.
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