3 People Who Played Essential Roles In Exposing The “Burning Sun” Criminals

BBC recently released their documentary on the “Burning Sun” scandal. It covered the crimes of sexual violence, prostitution, police collusion, and more by former BIGBANG member Seungri, soloist Jung Joon Young, former FT Island member Choi Jonghoon, and more.

Several women were instrumental in bringing justice to the victims of these men.

Learn more about them below.

1. Park Hyo Sil

Park Hyo Sil was the first reporter to break the news of singer Jung Joon Young’s molka (illegal filming) in 2016. Her editor received a tip-off from a trusted police force member. At that time, she “had no idea how massive it was going to be.” 

I am journalist Park Hyo Sil. I was the first reporter to break the story that Jung was accused of a sexual offence on September 23, 2016. The tip-off we received was that Jung secretly filmed his girlfriend and she accused him of molka…if we call her by the alias Kyung Mi, while they were having sex at his house Jung filmed molka and Kyung Mi caught him in the act. Concerned that the video might be distributed Kyung-mi later reported the incident as molka.

— Park Hyo Sil

It was the first time the singer-songwriter was revealed to be committing sex-related crimes. Through this incident, Jung Joon Young was forced to hand in his phone to be examined. He gave it to a private forensic company who was then pressured to hasten their investigation.

The entire case was soon dropped after the ex-girlfriend decided to retract her statement.

As a silver lining, one employee who had access to his phone data eventually decided to leak the contents of the soloist’s incriminating KakaoTalk group chat which led to his and his friends’ eventual imprisonment.

Unfortunately for reporter Park Hyo Sil, she was treated as a fraud online for the so-called false report right until the “Burning Sun” incident brought everything to light three years later. Within this time, she had two miscarriages as a result of the abuse she faced from netizens.

The media was the villain. I bore the brunt of it. They were sending me death threats. My husband was incredibly worried and told me not to go into the office, not to leave the house because it seemed so dangerous.

I started receiving phone calls in the early hours…and they would continue for about three to four hours. When I didn’t answer the phone, they started sending obscene images. I was pregnant and I was in such shock. I was so mentally shattered that even going out of the house was difficult. After that, I had two miscarriages and now I am childless.

— Park Hyo Sil

2. Kang Kyung Yoon

SBS journalist Kang Kyung Yoon was contacted by lawyer Bang Jeong Hyun after the latter received a USB drive in his office containing the KakaoTalk chat room messages from the forensic lab. He contacted Kang Kyung Yoon since “there was a need to make it public through the media.”

The KakaoTalk material I received contained Jung’s chat messages that he shared between 2015 and 2016. My heart still hurts when I think of that group chat. I had no idea it would be that serious.

— Kang Kyung Yoon

She uncovered a group chat which contained molka, sexually explicit videos and images of unconscious women, being shared among a group of friends that included K-Pop stars.

Like Park Hyo Sil, Kang Kyung Yoon also received death threats from the fans of the Burning Sun perpetrators.

[I received] unfathomable personal attacks. At the time I was pregnant, right? So they called me femi-b*tch. Pregnant femi-b*tch. Left-wing femi-b*tch. It was the first time in almost five years of marriage that I’d managed to fall pregnant, so I was so scared, in case something might happen to the baby. My heart was incredibly lonely and exhausted.

— Kang Kyung Yoon

3. Goo Hara

Finally, the last person BBC pointed out as being instrumental in uncovering the “Burning Sun” scandal was KARA member Goo Hara. She was the one who provided the missing piece in the investigation—the name of the Police Prosecutor General who was protecting the celebrity friends.

It was the “most unsolvable problem” according to reporter Kang Kyung Yoon. Luckily, the singer approached her in order to help as a fellow molka victim.

I still remember that day and her voice saying: ‘Reporter, it’s Hara,’ She said: ‘I really want to help you.’ I was so grateful. She told me that because she was friends with them, she’d seen them on their mobile phones before, and she said: ‘They’ve got some really weird things on there. What you said was right.’ She asked me: ‘How can I help?’ So I spoke honestly, ‘I need to know about that police officer, but there’s no way to know. So could you help with that?’

— Hara

Hara, a long-time friend of FT Island’s Choi Jonghoon, was able to convince him to give up the name of the man protecting them.

She said, ‘Choi Jonghoon, I can help you. Tell this reporter everything that you know.’

— Ho In, Hara’s Brother

It was because of these three brave women that the “Burning Sun” group was brought to court.

Watch the full documentary below to learn more.