Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms
The Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms was a South Korean entertainment and sex scandal publicized in 2019 as part of the Burning Sun scandal. The two scandals were tied together by the release of revealing KakaoTalk messages that exposed alleged crimes at the Burning Sun nightclub, and separately, by K-pop singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young and his friends and colleagues.
Jung Joon-young (photographed in 2016) and Choi Jong-hoon (in 2012), were sentenced for rape. | |
| Native name | 정준영 카카오톡 채팅방 |
|---|---|
| Date | November 2015 – June 2016 |
| Location | South Korea |
| Type | Entertainment and sex scandal |
| First reporter | Bang Jung-hyun |
| Convicted |
|
| Charges | Gang rape, illicit filming and sharing |
Leaked KakaoTalk messages from Jung's phone revealed conversations and videos dating from 2015 to 2016, which were used in a police investigation that resulted in gang rape convictions (two victims, separate dates) of Jung and four other chatroom members: a former member of F.T. Island, Choi Jong-hoon; a former Burning Sun employee named Kim; a businessman named Kwon; and a former employee of YG Entertainment named Heo. Jung's conviction included charges for eleven instances of illegal filming and sharing. Big Bang singer Seungri, around whom the Burning Sun scandal centered, was charged, at the same time as Jung and Choi, with sharing illegal photos in Jung's chatrooms. He was subsequently found guilty on nine charges in the Burning Sun scandal, one of which was three instances of sharing illegal photos via a mobile chatroom.
During the course of the investigation, other charges were made against solo singers Roy Kim and Eddy Kim for allegations of sharing illicit photographs in Jung's chatrooms. Both of their cases were eventually dropped after it was determined that, while they each shared one photo they found online, they did not create illicit content or participate in the chatroom where Jung shared illicit content.
Other entertainers were affected by the leaked KakaoTalk messages. Singer Yong Jun-hyung left the boyband Highlight after he admitted to viewing an illegal video Jung had shared with him. Lee Jong-hyun of rock band CNBLUE also admitted to viewing Jung's videos and allegedly asked Jung to get him a woman to have sex with; Lee later quit CNBLUE. Actor Cha Tae-hyun and comedian Kim Jun-ho both temporarily suspended their entertainment industry activities after the chatrooms revealed they allegedly gambled illegally.
The allegations of sex crimes involved added to the South Korea's "epidemic" of what is called molka, a Korean word for the online distribution of nonconsensual sex videos taken of women.