What is Burning Sun scandal? Revisiting ex-BIGBANG’s Seungri, Jung Joon Young’s involvement in sexual offenses case that shook K-pop world

Trigger Warning: This text contains references to alcohol, medication, sexual abuse, and rape.

The Burning Solar scandal, also is conception as Burning Solar Gate, became a 2019 leisure and intercourse scandal in Seoul, South Korea, implicating quite loads of celebrities, including idols from standard Good ample-pop groups, as nicely as police officers. With the present launch of BBC’s documentary on the in depth Burning Solar scandal, renewed attention has been drawn to the case.

The scandal has sent shockwaves ultimately of the Good ample-Pop commerce, with more than one idols, corresponding to Seungri (BIGBANG), Jung Joon Young, Jonghyun (CNBLUE), Junhyung (Highlight), and Jonghun (F.T. Island), being implicated in enabling and even running a secret intercourse chatroom. Let’s clutch a explore at what the controversy became and the scheme it unfolded.

The infamous chatroom

The Jung Joon Young KakaoTalk chatrooms are integral to the Burning Solar scandal. These two scandals turn out to be intertwined thru the launch of incriminating KakaoTalk messages, which printed crimes occurring at the Burning Solar nightclub. Additionally, they bear been linked one at a time to Good ample-pop singer and entertainer Jung Joon Young and his circle of company and colleagues.

Leaked KakaoTalk messages retrieved from Jung Joon Young’s phone showcased conversations and videos spanning from 2015 to 2016. These revelations turn out to be indispensable evidence in a police investigation that led to gang rape convictions difficult two separate victims, with Jung Joon Young and 4 other chatroom people, including Choi Jong Hoon of F.T. Island, a historical Burning Solar worker named Kim, a businessman named Kwon, and a historical YG Entertainment worker named Heo.

Jung Joon Hyung became convicted on more than one charges, including eleven counts of illegal filming and sharing of unconscious women. Seungri, a member of BIGBANG and a central figure in the Burning Solar scandal, faced charges at the same time as with Jung and Choi for sharing illegal photos in Jung’s chatrooms. He became later chanced on guilty on 9 charges linked to the Burning Solar scandal, including three cases of sharing illicit photos by process of a mobile chatroom.

The KakaoTalk messages bear been sourced from a licensed legitimate named Bang Jung Hyun, who claimed to bear received them from a whistleblower. This whistleblower, a technician at a phone repair shop where Jung Joon Hyung had taken his phone for repairs, sent an email to the layer containing thousands of messages extracted from Jung’s phone over an eight-month duration in 2015 and 2016. These messages implicated Jung, Seungri, and other male celebrities in discussions that printed no longer simplest intercourse crimes however also a detailed relationship between them and excessive-ranking cops.

On March 14, 2019, two more singers, Yong Jun Hyung of HIGHLIGHT and Choi Jong Hoon of F.T. Island, announced their retirement from their respective music groups amidst hypothesis of their involvement in Jung’s chatrooms. Yong Jun Hyung confessed to having watched with out a doubt one of Jung’s unauthorized intercourse tapes and participating in “infamous conversations” about it, admitting his foolishness. Choi Jong Hoon became printed to bear been a member of with out a doubt one of the most chatrooms, where he allegedly disclosed his involvement in a drunk utilizing incident from 2016. This incident remained undisclosed to the media on account of help from a police reliable with the surname Yoon.

On March 15, one more Korean idol, Lee Jonghyun of the rock band CNBLUE, admitted to having viewed Jung’s intercourse videos in a neighborhood chatroom and making derogatory remarks about women, objectifying them. Jonghyun departed from CNBLUE in August following revelations from a female YouTuber who exposed deepest messages he had sent her, which Billboard nicely-known “drew contemporary attention to his infamous interactions with and feedback about women.”

Furthermore, the scandal affected actor Cha Tae Hyun and comedian Kim Jun Ho, both fellow solid people of Jung on the range present 2 Days & 1 Night. On March 16, after revelations from the chatroom conversations suggested they’d allegedly engaged in excessive-stakes playing while playing golf in a foreign nation.

Jung Joon Young became arrested on March 21, 2019, and faced charges linked to crimes in opposition to as a minimal ten victims difficult the illegal filming and distribution of intercourse tapes. He admitted to the costs introduced in opposition to him. Therefore, he became formally indicted on April 17.

On April 2, 2019, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company issued a summons for singer-songwriter Roy Kim, alleging his presence in the illegal chatroom alongside Jung Joon Young, Seungri, and Choi. The next day, Roy Kim became booked for allegedly distributing an shameful characterize in the chatroom, a enlighten he denied, inserting forward he did no longer clutch the image himself.

On April 3, Imprint SJ, the company representing Kangin of the boy band Immense Junior, released a commentary confirming Kangin’s membership in Jung’s chatroom ultimately of their collaboration on the tv present Hitmaker three years prior. The company denied any illegal exercise on Kangin’s fraction. Additionally, on April 5, singer-songwriter Eddy Kim became booked for circulating one or more illegally bought pictures from the chatrooms. However they bear been later released and cleared. The investigation known a total of 23 various groups or one-on-one chatrooms, difficult 16 participants in total.

On Could 12, an appellate courtroom lowered the prison sentences for three defendants in the Burning Solar scandal. Jung Joon Young’s sentence became lowered to five years from six, Choi Jong Hoon’s to two-and-a-half of years from five, and Kim’s to four years from five. Additionally, Jung and Choi bear been denied probation, mandated to attend remedy capabilities, and restricted from working with childhood and kids.

Burning Solar membership scandal

The indispensable incident linked to the chatroom scandal is the Burning Solar nightclub case. It started on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk reported the alleged assault of a male clubgoer by a workers member at Burning Solar, a outstanding nightclub in Gangnam, in November 2018. The investigation by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company soon expanded to incorporate allegations of prostitution, drug trafficking, and police corruption linked to the membership. BIGBANG’s, with out a doubt one of the most membership’s directors, therefore resigned from the leisure commerce on March 11, 2019, after being charged with sexual bribery.

The scandal rapid expanded to incorporate allegations of rape and gaze cams when singer and entertainer Jung Joon Young confessed to secretly filming himself having intercourse with women and sharing the videos with out their data or consent. This revelation became tied to the aforementioned Jung Joon Young KakaoTalk chatrooms.

Acceptable courtroom cases stemming from the Burning Solar scandal continued into 2021. Although numerous cops bear been disciplined for his or her actions difficult the nightclub, the two very most real looking-profile circumstances led to acquittals. Burning Solar’s co-CEO, Lee Sung Hyun, testified that he had paid a historical police officer named Kang to quilt up an incident difficult an underage clubgoer, however Kang’s one-365 days prison sentence became overturned on account of lack of evidence. Additionally, a senior police reliable, Yoon Gyu Geun, became arrested for allegations of bribery and mediating favors for the Burning Solar membership and became chanced on no longer guilty in his first trial.

Other verdicts included Burning Solar’s co-CEO, Lee Moon-ho, receiving a one-365 days prison sentence for habitual drug exercise, including ecstasy and ketamine in Gangnam golf equipment. One of the membership’s promoters, MD Cho, became sentenced to four years and six months for drug exercise and smuggling.

Attributable to public hobby in the scandal, police conducted in depth drug sweeps at leisure venues, main to a total bunch of drug-linked arrests. These arrests customarily enthusiastic ecstasy and GHB, a frequent date rape drug. The sweeps also uncovered quite loads of circumstances of sexual assault, rape, and the filming of illegal videos ultimately of drug exercise.

Seungri’s commerce affiliate, Yoo In Seok, admitted to offering capability Japanese merchants with prostitutes and received a suspended sentence of three years probation alongside with an embezzlement price. Seungri’s case concluded in January 2022 in a defense power appeals courtroom, where his prison sentence became lowered to 1 and a half of years, alongside with an attractive. He faced 9 charges, including habitual in a foreign nation playing, illegal money transactions, prostitution mediation, and aquire, violence instigation, violation of the Disclose Financial Crimes Act, embezzlement, sharing illicit photos, and a commerce operations violation.

Aftermath of Burning Solar Scandal

The scandal amplified ongoing discussions about women’s factors in South Korea, including gender inequality, the Me Too movement, feminism, molka (gaze cameras), prostitution, and the Good ample-pop commerce’s attitude in opposition to women. South Korea’s #MeToo movement, which started in January 2018, became followed by the #SchoolMeToo movement amongst college students.

In July 2018, thousands marched in Seoul in opposition to gaze cameras. The govt.responded by hiring workers to video show public lavatories, however activists criticized a recurring dismissive attitude in opposition to those crimes, pointing to deeply rooted gender inequality and misogyny in the nation. As these furious in regards to the horrific and atrocious scandal poke free, the real request stays: how great has in actuality changed, if at all?

Disclaimer: Whenever you occur to understand any individual who’s struggling with alcohol or substance abuse, please attain out to the authorities and myth it. There are a lot of helplines on hand for the a linked. And Whenever you occur to’d like enhance or know any individual who’s struggling with violence or assault or abuse, please attain out to your nearest mental nicely being specialist, NGO or discuss to any individual about it. There are a lot of helplines on hand for the a linked.