Jung Joon-young, a former K-pop singer, was released from prison on Tuesday after serving a five-year term for his role in the high-profile spycam and rape scandal that rocked South Korea. Jung, now 35 years old, was convicted of rape on two occasions in 2016. He was also found guilty of filming himself having intercourse with other women without their knowledge and then releasing the video without their permission.
These videos, known as “molka” in Korean, are secretly filmed and frequently include women in schools, restrooms, and other private areas. His case was one of several sex scandals involving male celebrities that broke during South Korea’s #MeToo movement in 2018. Thousands of women came to the streets of Seoul to protest and demand an end to the exploitation of women, chanting, “My life is not your porn.”
Jung, dressed in a black hat and mask, left the prison in Mokpo
Jung, dressed in a black hat and mask, left the prison in Mokpo, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) south of Seoul, without speaking to the press on Tuesday morning, according to News1 agency. Another K-pop star, Seungri, a former member of the famed boy band BIGBANG, was also linked to the incident. Seungri was discovered to have acquired spycam videos from Jung and was eventually found guilty of various crimes stemming from a sex and drug scandal at his nightclub, Burning Sun. Jung, who rose to prominence in 2012 after placing third in the audition show Super Star K, declared his departure from the entertainment industry when the spycam controversy surfaced in 2019. He apologized for his acts, admitting that he had “committed crimes that cannot be forgiven.”
The spycam controversy not only resulted in legal consequences for Jung and those involved, but it also exposed the larger issue of non-consensual shooting and distribution of intimate photographs and films in South Korea. Goo Hara, a former member of the girl group Kara, committed herself in 2019 after being blackmailed with “revenge porn” by her ex-boyfriend. The issue has continued to reverberate in South Korea, with international footballer Hwang Ui-jo being investigated for allegedly filming sexual encounters without consent. Hwang, who is on loan from Nottingham Forest to Turkish club Alanyaspor, has denied the claims.
