K-pop Stars Sentenced For Rape And Sharing Assault Videos With Friends

Bruce Haring

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Two K-pop stars were sentenced to prison today for raping drunken women at parties, with one sharing videos of his assaults online.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young, who recorded and shared the videos, to six years in prison. Choi Jong-hoon, a former boy band member, was sentenced to five years.

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Jung was called “a disgraced singer and TV personality” by the Yonhap news agency, Choi was a former member of the K-pop band FT Island.

Their sentencing continues a recent string of scandals in the K-pop industry. Two singer/actresses committed suicide in the last two months, and another K-pop star was accused of providing prostitutes to foreign businessmen in a nightclub.

The sentencing verdict for Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon said they treated women as “mere tools of sexual pleasure,” according to the sentencing judge.

“The accused perpetrated sexual crimes against multiple women, degrading women and treating them as mere tools of sexual pleasure,” Judge Kang Seong-soo said in his verdict​. “It’s hard to fathom the pain the victims must have​ suffered.”

Both claimed during their trial that the sex acts had been consensual. However, the court found that the women were incapacitated and too drunk to consent.

After sentencing, the men wept and were escorted back to prison. They can appeal within a week.

The rapes date to 2016, but police only became aware of the incidents after receiving a tip this year. Jung had bragged in an online chat group about drugging and raping women, sharing videos of his exploits.

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