Former K-pop star Jung Joon-young was released from prison on Tuesday after serving a five-year sentence for gang rape and illicit filming. This case was part of a high-profile spycam scandal in South Korea.
Jung was convicted of rape in 2016 and of secretly filming himself engaging in sexual activities with women without their consent, then sharing the footage without their permission. Spycam videos, known as “molka” in Korean, are often created by men who record women without their knowledge in various locations.
This scandal came to light during the #MeToo movement in South Korea, with thousands of women protesting in Seoul in 2018 against such behavior. Another K-pop star, Seungri from the band BigBang, was also involved in a separate sex and drugs scandal linked to Jung’s case.
Jung, 35 years old, left the prison in Mokpo, located south of Seoul, without speaking to the press. He rose to fame in 2012 on the show “Super Star K” before the scandal forced him to retire from the entertainment industry in 2019. Other notable cases of sexual misconduct involving celebrities in South Korea have continued to emerge.
Goo Hara, a former member of the group Kara, tragically died by suicide in 2019 after being blackmailed with “revenge porn” by an ex-boyfriend. Additionally, international footballer Hwang Ui-jo is under investigation for allegedly filming sexual encounters without consent. Hwang denies these allegations.
The authorities are actively seeking to address these issues and have been involved in ongoing investigations related to the exploitation of women in the entertainment industry.
