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K-pop star Seungri walks into Seoul Central District Court in South Korea to attend a hearing on his arrest warrant last Tuesday. Authorities said there was not enough evidence to support charges of embezzlement.

K-pop sex-and-drugs nightclub scandal: few arrests and women’s groups in South Korea are furious

  • Coalition of South Korean women’s rights groups condemn the results of police investigation of Burning Sun nightclub, singer Seungri, and bribery of officer
  • ‘If these kinds of investigations continue to be the norm, Korea will be nothing more than a kingdom of rape,’ says Green Party’s former Seoul mayor candidate

By Lee Suh-yoon

Three months after South Korean police launched an investigation into alleged rapes and drug use at Seoul’s infamous Burning Sun nightclub and the ties between police officers and the club owners, justice has still to be done, women’s groups say.

Almost none of the key players in what the groups refer to as the country’s “rape business cartel” were held accountable when the results of the investigations were announced last week.

Only K-pop star Jung Joon-young, who left clear digital evidence that he shared secretly recorded sex videos in mobile chat rooms, and a couple of Burning Sun staff members who were involved in a physical assault on a male customer who first raised suspicions of collusion with police, came under scrutiny.

The scandal started when a club customer accused the managers of Burning Sun of attacking him last November. Allegations then surfaced that managers of the club drugged female customers with a date-rape drug; that Seungri, a member of K-pop boy band BigBang and a director of the club, provided prostitution services to investors; and that a senior police superintendent surnamed Yoon had been paid to protect the stars.

South Korean singer Jung Joon-young arrives for questioning by police in March on accusations of illicitly taping and sharing sex videos on social media. Photo: Reuters

The results of the investigation, conducted by 152 officers, were condemned by the coalition of women’s rights groups as dismal.

“The police report said there were no suspicious ties between the police and the sex industry, and no charges could be brought against Superintendent Yoon. Seungri and the other key figures from the Burning Sun scandal can freely roam the streets,” the coalition said in a press conference held in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

“The result of this investigation shows how male power operates, and how easily women’s calls for justice are silenced.”

The interior of the Burning Sun nightclub in Gangnam district, Seoul. Photo: Handout

Messages in a mobile chat room involving the K-pop stars suggested that Yoon “watched their backs” to cover the illicit dealings at Burning Sun and other nightlife businesses run by Seungri.

It was found that Seungri and business partner Yoo In-suk treated Yoon to meals and golf trips. But Yoon was not charged with violating the anti-graft law because the amount of money involved “did not warrant criminal punishment”, according to the police investigation.

A local court also denied an arrest warrant for Seungri earlier last week, saying there was not enough evidence to support charges of embezzlement and providing prostitution services for investors.

“None of the allegations, including those of cosy relations between police and nightlife establishments, illegal filming of women and the spreading of such clips, have been resolved,” the coalition said in their statement. “The police should not regard the Burning Sun scandal as an illegal act at one club; they should make a thorough investigation to eradicate the industry exploiting women and female sexuality.”

Seungri was a director of the Burning Sun nightclub in Seoul until the scandal broke. Photo: Handout

Shin Ji-ye, a former Green Party candidate for the position of Seoul mayor, said the results of the investigation echoed a disturbingly familiar pattern.

“It was the same 10 years ago in the sexual abuse case of the late actress Jang Ja-yeon. Key male suspects in power all got away and in the end just the entertainment agency head and two managers got slaps on the wrist on charges of physical violence,” Shin says. “If these kinds of investigations continue to be the norm, Korea will be nothing more than a kingdom of rape run by powerful insiders.”

More rallies are planned to call for stronger government action over the Burning Sun scandal and the rampant rape culture it exposed in the nightclub business. More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for a special probe into VIP nightclub guests who allegedly paid to be provided with drugged female clubbers to rape.

Read the full story at the Korea Times.
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