Burning Sun scandal

The Burning Sun scandal, also known as Burning Sun gate, was a 2019 entertainment and sex scandal in Seoul, South Korea, which involved several celebrities, including Korean idols of popular K-pop groups, and police officials. The allegations of sex crimes added to the country's "epidemic" of what is called molka, a Korean word for the online distribution of nonconsensual sex videos taken of women, and the scandal became fodder for political parties, who argued over how to handle it.

It began on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk reported a November 2018 alleged assault of a male clubgoer at the Burning Sun, a prominent nightclub in Gangnam, by a staff member. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigation soon turned to one concerning the club's alleged involvement in prostitution, drug trafficking and police corruption. Seungri of the band Big Bang, one of the club's directors, subsequently resigned from the entertainment industry on March 11, 2019, after being charged with sexual bribery. The scandal quickly encompassed allegations of rape and spy cams when singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young confessed to secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the videos, without their knowledge or consent, in the Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms, and he resigned from the entertainment industry on March 12, 2019. While looking into the Burning Sun scandal, SBS funE had discovered videos dated from 2015 to 2016, as well as conversations Jung shared in chat groups on the social media app KakaoTalk with Seungri and acquaintances. The chatroom exposé immediately affected a few celebrities, and more as the case developed. On March 14, Yong Jun-hyung of Highlight and Choi Jong-hoon of F.T. Island resigned from their positions, after allegations they were participants in the chatrooms, and the agency for Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE admitted his involvement on March 15.

Legal proceedings for criminal investigations generated by the scandal continued into 2021. Although several police officers were disciplined for their actions involving the Burning Sun club, the two highest profile cases resulted in trial acquittals. Burning Sun's co-CEO, Lee Sung-hyun, testified that he had paid a former police officer named Kang to cover for an underage clubgoer incident, but Kang's one-year prison sentence was overturned for lack of evidence. Also, a well publicized case involved a senior police official, Yoon Gyu-geun, who was arrested for allegations of bribery and mediating favors for the Burning Sun club and others, which ended with an innocent verdict at his first trial. Among other verdicts, Burning Sun's co-CEO, Lee Moon-ho, was sentenced to a year in prison for habitual drug use, including ecstasy and ketamine in Gangnam clubs, and one of the club's promoters, MD Cho, was sentenced to four years and six months for drug use and smuggling. Due to public interest in the scandal, police conducted drug sweeps at entertainment venues that yielded hundreds of drug-related arrests, a large percentage involving ecstasy and GHB, a common date rape drug; along with cases of sexual assault and rape, and the filming of illegal videos during drug use.

Seungri's business associate, Yoo In-seok, admitted to providing potential Japanese investors with prostitutes and received a suspended sentence of three years probation and an embezzlement charge. Seungri's entertainment agency head, Yang Hyun-suk, admitted to gambling and illegal money transactions in Las Vegas casinos and was sentenced to paying a fine, along with three YG and YGX associates. Seungri's case concluded in January 2022 in a military appeals court, with a reduced prison sentence of one year and a half and a fine. The nine charges included habitual gambling overseas and illegal money transactions, prostitution mediation and purchase, violence instigation, violation of the Specific Economic Crimes Act, embezzlement, sharing illicit photos, and a business operations violation.