A new BBC World Service documentary revisited the Burning Sun club scandal in 2019 that made ex-K-pop idol Seungri quit the group Big Bang and retire from the entertainment industry, filming sex videos without the consent of women, and the courage of two female Korean journalists who exposed it. 

The documentary “Burning Sun: Exposing the secret K-pop chat groups” was released by BBC World Service on May 19 and is available on YouTube. 

Seungri (Instagram)

Jung Joon-young in Manila in 2018 (Jonathan Hicap)

Former FT Island member Choi Jong-hoon (Instagram)

Korean journalist Kang Kyung-yoon (Screenshot from BBC World Service video)

Korean journalist Park Hyo-sil (Screenshot from BBC World Service video)

Chat messages between Seungri and Kim (Screenshot from BBC World Service video)

The Burning Sun club was located in Le Meridien Seoul hotel in Gangnam. The scandal started in January 2019 when a man named Kim Sang-kyo complained that he was beaten up at Burning Sun after he helped a woman who was being sexually harassed. 

The incident snowballed into an investigation into the club’s activities including links to Seungri, who served as a board member of Burning Sun. This also led to investigations of singers Jung Joon-young and FT Island’s Choi Jong Hoon. 

The three were eventually convicted by courts and sentenced to imprisonment. 

Seungri was released from prison on Feb. 9 last year after serving one year and six months on appeal. He was found guilty of various crimes including prostitution brokerage, overseas gambling and procuring prostitution service.  

Jung Joon-young was released from prison on March 19 this after completing his sentence of five years for gang rape. Choi Jong-hoon was released from prison on Nov. 8 after serving two and a half years. 

The two were convicted by a court of for intoxicating women and raping them in two incidents in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province in January 2016 and Daegu in South Korea in March 2016. 

Documentary

In the documentary, female journalists Park Hyo-sil and Kang Kyung-yoon revealed how they got the Burning Sun, chat room and molka, or “the Korean term for secretly taking explicit photos or videos without consent.” The chat room where the illegal videos were uploaded had Seungri, Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon as members. 

The two journalists also said that because of their stories on the scandal, they had to endure harassment from netizens. 

Park Hyo-si wrote about a former girlfriend of Jung Joon-young who filed charges against him for molka but later withdrew it. She suffered two miscarriages. 

“The first wave of attacks came as comments and malicious emails.. After about six months, I started receiving phone calls in the early hours, around 2am, and they would continue for about three to four hours until 5am,” she narrated in the documentary. 

She added, “When I didn't answer the phone, they started sending obscene images and expletives through Messenger. At the time, 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. It was so difficult, but I couldn't quit because I felt like if I did, they would win and many other female journalists could suffer the same damage. So I thought I should endure this time.”

To lure investors for the “biggest club in Gangnam,” the Burning Sun, Seungri held a lavish event in Palawan in the Philippines. 

“In December 2017, he hires an island in the Philippines for his birthday party,” according to the documentary. 

Kang Kyung-yoon said, “There was an event where Seungri took a dozen young women from Korea to a resort in Palawan, the Philippines. He invited wealthy people he wanted investment from to that party. He received huge investments through those connections and opened Burning Sun, the largest club in Gangnam at the time.”

A former employee of Burning Sun detailed how the club operated. 

Ko Eunsang,  “a reporter who was one of the first to investigate Burning Sun,” said, “In order to book these tables, you'd have to pay a minimum $1,500 [and] $7,500 at the weekend. At an event like Halloween or Christmas, from thousands to tens of thousands, to even $75,000 for a table.”

“Because the VIPs pay that much money to come in, right? They obviously expect something extra. 'I've spent this much money' 'What pleasure can you give me in return?' So they started making secret spaces for just the VIPs,” he said. 

The former employee revealed, “To attract male customers, MDs [merchandises] take pictures of pretty women who are drunk, secretly, without their permission, and send them to the VIPs,” he said. 

Another former employee of Burning Sun said, “[The date rape drug] GHB was used a lot. Normally, the customers that used it were in private rooms. There was a room incredibly deep in the club. There were lots of guards outside the room and whatever happened in there, no-one would hear a thing. I saw women unconscious after being given GHB at Burning Sun almost every day.”

Ko Eunsang said, “One VIP client I met told me that if a VIP client picked out a woman and said: 'Bring that woman to me’, they did whatever needed to be done to her to make her unconscious. The VIP would then take her up to the hotel or get a car to a different location.” 

One female customer at Burning Sun revealed that after having one or two drinks at the club, she felt weird and “woke up on a bed” in hotel room with a man who gave her drinks. 

“Then he suddenly ran at me and forced my clothes off. I tried to scream but he covered my mouth, and I tried not to get attacked so I keep trying to get up, right?” she said. 

In order to get out of the room, “I knelt down on the floor and begged. I begged him to send me home. I said I missed my mum so much. I cried and begged.. He said he'd let me go if I take a photo. He told me to smile but I couldn't. I wanted to cover my face. Because he didn’t let me, I just made a peace sign. Then I rushed out.” 

She reported to the police but the man used the photo as evidence to say they had consensual sex, according to the documentary. He was allowed to leave Korea. 

Lawyer Bang Jeong-hyun received USB files from an informant containing the “forensic data from the mobile phone of” Jung Joon-young.. 

“There was a need to make it public through the media. That's how I came to collaborate with reporter Kang [Kyung-yoon],” he said. 

Kang Kyung-yoon talked to Korean channel SBS, her employer, about it and agreed to publish stories about the phone’s content and an allegation that a police officer was in collusion. This led to Seungri being questioned by the police for nine hours. 

Goo Hara 

It was the late K-pop star Goo Hara of group Kara who was instrumental in identifying the name of the police officer. 

“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<’ Kang Kyung-yoon said. 

Goo Hara and Choi Jong Hoon “had been close since their debut. Hara also knew Seungri and Jung too,” the documentary added. 

Goo Hara (Instagram)

“Then Hara called Choi and asked that question for me [about the identity of the police officer],” the journalist said. 

“Choi told me that the Police Prosecutor General was not a fictional character, but a real person, a police officer called Yoon Kyu-keun who also had worked at the presidential residence,” said Kang Kyung-yoon. 

“Hara had helped Choi admit it. Hara was a very brave woman. She also said to me 'I am also a victim of revenge porn,’” said the reporter. 

In 2018, Goo Hara was in the headlines about her former boyfriend, Choi Jong-bum, who was accused of assaulting her and threatened to leak a sex video. Goo Hara passed away on Nov. 24, 2019. 

After Kang Kyung-yoon’s story was published, “the police have launched an investigation into Jung Joon-young for allegedly illegally filming and distributing sex videos.”

He returned from abroad and was later arrested. 

“Bang becomes the pro-bono lawyer for five anonymous victims. He launches a court case against Jung, Choi and others in the group for Molka and Rape,” the documentary stated. 

“Five days after Hara’s death, the court sentences Jung to six years for the gang rape in Daegu and for taking and distributing Molka,” it added. 

On Nov. 29, 2019, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Jung Joon-young to six years in prison and former FT Island member Choi Jong-hoon to five years for raping women.  The court also convicted Jung Joon Young for distributing illegally filmed videos of his sexual acts with women 11 times on KakaoTalk chat rooms in 2015. 

They appealed their sentences, which were reduced. 

The documentary added that “three years later, Kang is still being trolled for her role in exposing the crimes of the three K-pop stars.”

According to the former Burning Club employee, GHB is still being used in clubs in South Korea. 

“Burning Sun. There is no difference between Burning Sun and current clubs. What happened back then is still happening now. Though there was lots of coverage about GHB, they are still using it in my club,” he said. 

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website, “Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is another name for the generic drug sodium oxybate,” used “as a treatment to improve daytime sleepiness and muscle weakness with narcolepsy (a disorder marked by sudden, unexplained, spontaneous fatigue, napping, or falling asleep throughout the day).” 

“GHB and its analogues are also misused for their ability to increase libido, suggestibility, passivity, and to cause amnesia (no memory of events while under the influence of the substance) — traits that make victims vulnerable to sexual assault and other criminal acts,” it added. 

It stated, “GHB misuse became popular among teens and young adults at dance clubs and ‘raves’ in the 1990s and gained notoriety as a date rape drug. GHB is taken alone or in combination with other drugs, such as alcohol (primarily), other depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and marijuana.”