#372: K-pop Idol Goo Hara Helped Expose the BURNING SUN Sex Scandal In Her Final Days
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at iXL.com slash audio. Visit iXL.com slash audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. September 14th, 2018. It's the middle of the night around 3.30 in the morning. The police get a phone call from a young man. He's 27 years old and he says that he'd like to report an incident of domestic violence, assault.

This is the Gangnam police and this is happening in Gangnam, South Korea. This is like the Beverly Hills, the Upper East Side of Seoul. He tells the officers that he just tried to break up with his girlfriend and she beat him up, assaulted him. The Gangnam police show up to investigate and when they get there, the man is further explaining, I mean, I just tried to break up with my girlfriend because her personality, I mean, if you know her, she's very passionate. That's the nicest way to put it.

She just has this over-the-top, dramatic personality, explosive. Her temper is out of this world. She's quite hysterical. So I just try to break up with her and she loses her mind, starts scratching him across the face, twisting his arm, assaulting him, screaming at him. Who are you to break up with me? The police look at the man and he does have pretty deep scratches on his face. They're quite bloody, actually. There's one right above his eye that's bleeding into his eye. There's one on his forehead.

The police ask, "Girlfriend's name?" "Kuhara." "Kuhara? The famous K-pop idol?"

from one of the biggest girl groups of their time? This is a very delicate case and they know this. The police start investigating and there's just something that's not really adding up. If this man's story is true, why is there CCTV footage of Kuhara, the K-pop idol on her knees, begging him to not do this to her?

And why did he, the boyfriend, email dispatch a Korean tabloid similar to TMZ twice during this so-called one-sided assault? And what does all of this have to do with the burning sun? A few months after this domestic violence incident, Kuhara will help reporters blow the lid off of the burning sun case. And less than a year later after that, she will be found dead in her apartment. This is part two of the burning sun case.

We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Megan Meyer Foundation. Since its inception, they have grown into a global cyberbullying and self-exit prevention foundation. They provide education, intervention, resources, support, and inspire communities to eradicate bullying once and for all. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. And we would like to thank our listeners for your continued support as we work on our mission to be worthy advocates.

As always, full show notes are available at rottenmanglepodcast.com. A couple of disclaimers before we get into today's case. Today's case involves some heavy subjects, including bullying, self-exit, essay, and abuse through blackmail of releasing explicit photos and images without one's consent. If that is something that you might think is too heavy for you today, please go take care of yourself. And if you need to, click out. We will see you in the next one.

First and foremost, I do want to cite the BBC's new documentary that came out early 2024, so a few months ago, and everybody requested that we do a follow-up on our previous Burning Sun episode. The BBC documentary is free to watch on BBC's YouTube channel. They also have a six-part podcast about Burning Sun that is also free to listen to on their website.

We had multiple researchers on the RM team work on this case. We tried really hard to make sure everything we say has been verified through the appropriate sources, or we indicate when something is a speculation or theory, but if anything is ever lost in translation miscommunicated, or if you have any additional context or information, please let us know down in the comments.

Also, this is part two of Burning Sun. This is following our initial episode that came out a few months ago, but in a few days, we will be uploading the third and final part. There's a lot of updates. I mean, otherwise, this video would have been four hours long. So with that being said, let's jump into a brief recap of Burning Sun. Even if you have no idea what we're talking about or watched part one's episode a while ago, hopefully this recap is going to give you the lowdown on the case.

In Seoul, South Korea, there were, at the time in 2018, three places where you can go if you want to see a celebrity or a K-pop idol in person. First would be a fan meet. There's always fan meets. Your second option is a little different but similar, is go to a concert. You're not going to see them up close and personal, but you'd still see them in real life. And the third option was the one that marketed itself as the place to be if you want to rub shoulders with celebrities and the upper elite.

The third place is the Burning Sun nightclub. It's located in Gangnam and it was marketed as the it spot. Your chances of seeing an idol in real life would skyrocket, allegedly, if you go to the Burning Sun nightclub. In fact, Seungri, an idol from Big Bang, one of the biggest K-pop groups at the time, would often DJ and promote the club. Most people, if you're lucky, you gotta wait in line. The club is exclusive. You have to wait in line maybe for an hour to get in on busy weekends.

But if you're this slim minority that is a VIP at an establishment like this, you get a unique experience, special treatment. The VIP table menu starts at $10,000 for the basic champagne package, but it can easily go up to $100,000 to get just 22 bottles of champagne and super VIP treatment.

But if you're a true, true VIP, you know that's not even the real menu. There's a secret menu at Burning Sun and on it is just one thing. It's not even alcohol, but the most expensive thing, the most coveted top secret menu item is a tall glass of water.

You had to be well known and there's likely a threshold for the amount of money that you had to spend before you're able to purchase a glass of water. And you get a whole dedicated team or staff with group chats and drug runners to get you this glass of water. At Burning Sun Nightclub, a tall glass of water is code for a young, beautiful, and most importantly, drunk, so they don't fight back, female club goer.

The employees at Burning Sun would coordinate getting VIPs tall glasses of water into their VIP rooms. They would do whatever it takes to get them their secret menu choices, even if that means drugging these women. Their drug of choice at Burning Sun was typically GHB. Basically, they would roofie these club goers, these female club goers that have no idea that the employees at Burning Sun are even doing this to them, which meant it's not even about covering your drinks from other partiers. The bartender is slipping it in.

which meant the drugged woman would be likely completely passed out to allow the VVIPs to do whatever they wanted to them, which typically included essaying them and illegally filming videos of them. There is a video of a woman being dragged into a VIP room, clearly unwillingly, and the employees do nothing to stop the situation or help her. It seems like a normal day at the club.

Burning Sun is one of K-pop's biggest sex scandals to date because it is revealed to the public that Seungri, the DJ who sometimes plays sets at the Burning Sun, the K-pop idol that you could go see in person if you waited in line at the club, Seungri of Big Bang, he

He's not just a DJ. In fact, he was one of the four directors of Burning Sun Entertainment, as well as co-founder of Yuri Holdings, a shareholder of the nightclub. Investigations also revealed that he was a member of various Kakao Talk group chats that had other well-known K-pop idols in the group, most notably JJY of Drug Restaurant and

That's the band name. And Choi Jung-hoon of FT Island. The group chat messages exposed mentions of possible police collusion, tax evasion, illegal sharing of sexual images and videos, and the drugging and r-wording of women. These videos were shared into these group chats. Additionally, it has been stated that Seung-li, as a way to get investors into Burning Sun to invest in his businesses, he would procure women to sleep with the VIP investors.

The central figure in the Burning Sun case is Seungri from Big Bang. The chat logs can be split into two different types of activities. One, which consists of Seungri sourcing women for his VIP investors. And two, which consists of Seungri and other K-pop idols sharing videos of women that they have slept with consensually and sometimes not consensually. And videos of women that look like they are drugged and appear to be unconscious and did not consent to intimate relations or to being filmed.

There were some supporters of Seungri, even after he pled guilty to so many of these crimes, that stated that he was not in any of the group chats that shared illegal videos of women. Even after our first Burning Sun episode, I actually got emails of people being like, you don't know what you're talking about. And that the chat rooms are two unrelated group chats entirely.

And to those people, I think that they're entitled to their own opinions, regardless of if it's rooted in reality or not. However, I do hope common sense finds you soon. And I do wish them the best in their journey of self-healing that will hopefully come one day.

In May of this year, 2024, new footage and chat logs that have never been seen before were published by the BBC, where there is clear, irrefutable evidence that Seungri was in those group chats that shared explicit videos of women. One piece of evidence provided by the BBC, Seungri responds in a group chat to a video that is sent of an unconscious woman being essayed.

That was released by the BBC. If you believe that Seungri is still innocent and not involved in those group chats, please tell Seungri to file a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, which he has not done so far, at least as of public knowledge, nor have we heard from his attorneys, even though we have been accused of defaming his great character. And not to mention, a new video was also published by the BBC of Seungri angrily gripping a woman's arm, dragging her while screaming, shut up, shut up, follow me.

She clearly tries to sit back down. She does not want to go with him. She seems intoxicated and is doing her best to resist.

We have no further context to the video, but I don't think anything is needed. There are so many better hills to die on than that of a man who treats any woman or anyone for that matter like that. Regardless of any excuse, context, explanation that one can muster up, it's gross. And he's not going to pick you regardless of how many medium articles you self-publish for him or how many Twitter essays you write. But one of the most important things that the new BBC documentary has highlighted is the

the quote, whistleblowers of the Burning Sun case. To give you some context, the news of what was going on in Burning Sun would start unraveling to the public November of 2018, not even a full year after the club opened. CCTV footage would come out involving an incident with a man named Kim Sang-gyo, who claimed that he was a club goer that was physically assaulted by the Burning Sun staff because he tried to prevent a woman from being drugged. Kim was arrested at Burning Sun on charges of sexual assault.

However, he made his own allegations stating that he was trying to prevent a woman, a different woman, from being sexually assaulted by somebody else and that the charges against him are indicative of collusion between Burning Sun and the police. Now, interestingly enough, victims, women who have nothing to do with this Kim person, have gone to the police to report all of what was going on in Burning Sun before this incident even happened. But it wasn't until Kim's

situation that the investigation was kick-started into the burning sun nightclub so as a result mainstream media news outlets begin mass reporting kim as the whistleblower of the burning sun case many news outlets even started casting doubt on the fact that kim was also arrested they suggested perhaps it's part of a big cover-up since burning sun has connections with higher-ups in the police force and that has been proven through their chat logs perhaps it's a setup

In June of this year, 2024, Kim Sang-gyu, whom the media labeled as the whistleblower, was officially charged and the Supreme Court upheld his sentence of a two-year probationary period with a deferred one-year prison sentence. He was found guilty of molesting one employee of Burning Sun and obstructing business.

A few netizens have used this prosecution as proof that Kim Sang-kyo was, quote, the real predator behind Burning Sun and that Seung-li specifically was scapegoated, framed, and his involvement was exaggerated to further push some sort of weird narrative. And some go as far to claim that Seung-li is actually innocent. So much so that the hashtags Apologize to Seung-li and hashtag Justice for Seung-li started trending. Oh my god.

However, the majority of netizens with some common sense believe no, Kim Sang-kyo can be a whistleblower and a criminal at the same time. Similar to how a K-pop idol like Seungri can leave a lasting imprint on the K-pop industry and be a criminal at the same time. Those things are not mutually exclusive. So for a few netizens that are still unconvinced, please take it up with the courts.

The official guilty verdicts of just a few of the men involved in the burning sun, including the controversial whistleblower are as follows. JJY was found guilty of gang R wording, filming and distributing illegally recorded videos. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Choi Jong-hyun was found guilty with gang R wording and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Seung-li...

was found guilty and charged with overseas gambling, the embezzlement of millions, procurement of prostitution, mediation of prostitution, spreading illegal pictures, instigating violence, and other small business-related charges. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, which he pled guilty to.

Kim Sang-kyo, the quote whistleblower, was found guilty and charged with molestation and obstruction of business. He was sentenced to two years probation and a deferred prison sentence of one year. All four of these individuals were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt until irrefutable evidence comes out, which I haven't seen a single solid piece of evidence that is verified and can actually be argued in the court of law in any of the Twitter essays, Twitter graphics, logics,

long threads, medium self-published articles. I haven't seen anything. Until irrefutable evidence comes out and officially exonerates these men, those are their sentences, those are their crimes, and those are their records. If you want a further deep dive, feel free to watch our previous episode on Burning Sun, which will be linked in the description. But one of the more important aspects of the new BBC documentary is that it has shed light on five women that are responsible for exposing the Burning Sun scandal.

The five women who honestly should be remembered as the real whistleblowers and the ones who blew the lid on Burning Sun.

This is the story of how one woman's police report would kickstart the entire case. A second woman who secretly dropped three USB drives off at a lawyer's office containing all of the evidence. The third woman who suffered death threats and two miscarriages and still would not back down because she believed the public deserved to know the truth. The fourth woman who risked her entire career to conduct her own investigation, find the victims herself and go up against the police.

and the story of a fifth woman who sacrificed friendships in order to track down a corrupt police official and who would be found dead in her apartment before anyone could say thank you.

Reporter Kang inserts a USB drive into her computer and now it's the waiting game. It's taking longer to load all these files, a lot longer than she initially expected. I mean, she kind of had an idea of what was going to be on the USB drives. Her friend who happens to be an attorney called her and he's like, hey, I need you to take on this big case involving this massive K-pop star that is allegedly involved in some shady activities in their private lives.

A whistleblower had dropped off three USB drives filled with evidence at the attorney's office under one condition. She remained totally anonymous. Both the attorney and reporter Kang have a vague idea of what's going to be on these USBs. Three years ago, there was this incident.

A woman had walked into the police station and reported that her boyfriend had secretly recorded explicit videos of her. The boyfriend is brought into the police station, but he states, unfortunately, oopsie, my phone is broken. What do you know? Like, what are the odds of that? He has his phone taken to a private third party tech shop to recover the deleted files to show the police that he did not have those files of his former girlfriend on his phone like he was accused of.

Now, the anonymous girl working at the tech store receives a phone call from an attorney and they want to talk about the phone that's sitting on her desk right now. The attorney tells her more or less, let it go. You don't even have to touch the phone. Just say that you went through the phone and you couldn't find any files. Tell the authorities that there's no files to be recovered on the phone. It's a big misunderstanding. Even the authorities want to just get this case over with. It's just it's a nuisance.

It's very, very, very shady. And of course, it piques her interest. She's able to recover all the files on the phone, but she doesn't just find the video of the ex-girlfriend, the one that reported him to the police. She finds hundreds of text messages, countless videos and photos of other women that seemed drugged, unconscious while being essayed. And the phone's owner? The famous, beloved K-pop idol, J.J.Y.,

What? The girl working at the tech store makes a digital copy of all the files on his phone and collects three USB drives worth of evidence. Evidence that she sits on for three years because she's terrified. She finally finds the courage to send them anonymously to an attorney.

Reporter Park was the one that initially reported on this case. So reporter King has the USB drives. This is a completely different reporter. This is in 2016. She hears about the police report of JJ wise ex-girlfriend alleging that he has videos of her explicit videos that she did not consent to on his phone. She writes a few articles about this and she gets torn apart, ripped to shreds because by this point there is no proof that JJ why the idol had recorded videos of his girlfriend without consent. It's a completely different reporter.

In response to reporter Park's articles, J.J.Y. holds a press conference where he states, "'First of all, I sincerely apologize "'for causing controversy with this incident.'"

The woman who pressed charges against me was my ex-girlfriend and even though we split up, we remained good friends. The video in question was filmed as a joke with consent and it was deleted right away. I've been working a lot recently and that led us to arguing and in the middle of that argument, she filed a complaint to the police against me. But since being questioned by the police, she has withdrawn the charges.

reporter park is ripped to shreds comments on reporter park read park trying to fuck up a person's life with her stupid article breaks my heart thinking about jj why crying about all of this seriously go die reporter park look at that face on reporter park it makes me want to stomp on it what a bitch of a fucking filthy lower class jealous of these men if her network doesn't fire her i'm gonna set their building on fire

Reporter Park would receive death threats, explicit photos of private parts. She would be doxxed and bullied for years after these articles that she published. She was scared for her life, stressed, terrified, villainized, and ultimately she miscarried twice and she lost her ability to have children after that. Nobody believed her. But now, three years later, Reporter Kang has the USB drives that the tech shop worker had copied and kept as evidence.

Reporter Kang starts feeling the nerves creep up on her. The files are done loading. She clicks on the first file.

And it takes her a few seconds to even understand what she's looking at right now. It is not the ex-girlfriend that initially made the report against JJY. It is a video of a completely different woman naked in a bed. And she looks like she's on drugs or she's practically asleep. She looks completely unaware of what's going on and what's happening to her. And the fact that she is being sexually assaulted right now. By JJY? Yes.

Reporter Kang says her heart starts beating faster and faster. She clicks the next video file and it's another intimate act. A woman engaging in oral activities with a guy, but it seems like she doesn't know that this is being filmed. It seems like it's being covertly recorded. There's a video where a woman is clearly unconscious. Some of the other ones, it's hard to even know if they're consenting or not because

It's hard to know if they're even awake. You can't really say for sure, oh, they're awake or this is just, you get it. A lot of the videos look like whoever is filming wanted it to be filmed without that party's consent though. So already illegal.

File after file, there's more. More K-pop idols with wholesome, beloved images that are using women for sex and sharing videos of them in these Kakao Talk group chats. And it's not just JJY. The four main names that stick out to her are Seungri from Big Bang, JJY, whose phone copy this is, Choi from FT Island, and someone the members keep referring to as the police prosecutor general. Police prosecutor general, someone high up in the police.

Reporter Kang realizes that she just uncovered hundreds upon hundreds of text messages, including photos and videos of women being secretly filmed during intimate relations and even videos of essay being circulated between famous celebrities, wealthy business investors, and a powerful police official.

Reporter Kang is shaking at what she's reading. One message thread is of Seungri procuring women for his investors. He texts into the chat, this Christmas, instead of us having fun, let's make others happy and feel satisfaction vicariously through that. Chairman Oe sends his yacht with crew and chefs from Japan to Busan every summer for us. So let's give him some fun this time. In another message, he writes, girls, get the good ones that give it good.

A man named Kim responds: "I'm calling them right now, but I don't know if they'll give well. I wonder if they're only giving well considering it's you guys?" JJY writes: "The Chinese ones will like the girls that look like they have a lot of plastic surgery." A man named Yoo responds: "I'm getting the prostitutes ready now. When the two of them get here, Mr. K can take them to the hotel rooms."

In another message, Seungri writes, "Wasn't yesterday's party so fucking awesome?" I can acknowledge that girl. I'm so into her. Her sister is also really fine. JJY responds, "Right, her sister was a real surprise. There were a lot of hidden gems yesterday." The guys complained that there were too many guys at the party, to which Seungri writes, "We can just get rid of them. Let's have them together. All of us. In Korea, we can just have them all together and I'll just go marry a foreign girl."

In another, JJY writes, "Let's all get together online, hit the strip bar, and rape a girl in the car." Wait, hold on. You say one of the Sony say like have them in Korea and then I go marry a foreign girl? Yeah, so they're talking about how they don't want to marry a passed around girl, basically.

Yeah. Then a series of text messages were sent into the group chat after a fan sign that a few of the idols had attended. And they giggle about how one of the girls was so drunk, well, or potentially drugged, that she tripped and hit her head so hard they heard her skull cracking. They were so terrified that she was going to die. Laughing emoji, crying emoji. They stated it was the funniest thing in their entire life. They sent those messages after gang R-wording a fan from their fan meet.

Another thread is of a group chat member stating he has a girl with sleeping pills in her and he did her. In other messages, they joke about how they don't like when they send videos of girls that are passed out and being essayed because it looks like they're not even alive. One of them argues, so what if she's out of it? To which JJY jokes, that means you raped her, lol.

Reporter Kang clicks on another message thread. January 2016, the ski trip. A video is sent to the group chat while the guys were on this ski trip and the video is 24 seconds long. It does not appear that the woman in these videos know that they are being filmed. In fact, it doesn't even appear the woman knows what's going on. The video is of a man on the sofa pulling a woman's undergarments aside and touching her down there, but she looks slumped over and unconscious. Another photo is of a man's hand touching a woman's breast.

Another video is filmed from the second floor of the ski chalet, peering down onto the first floor where the women again are clearly not aware that these videos are being taken. Another video is of a man walking through the hallway, opening the door to a bedroom to see a man having intimate relations with a woman. It is impossible to tell if she consents to the intimate relations, but clearly she doesn't know that she's being filmed. Seung Lee responds in the group chat because he is in the group chat.

He responds, "Who is it?" The friend Kim responds, "He he, redacted's friend, redacted." The one who talks a lot? One minute later, he sends three more pictures. According to the BBC, all three pictures depict the R-Wording of unconscious woman.

These messages are from 2016. 2016 is when Seungri and his group that he was a part of, Big Bang, were ranked one of the most powerful celebrities in all of South Korea. They were the first Korean artists to be included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. They were technically on top of the world. Wait, 2016, that's before Burning Sun opened. Yeah.

So they've been doing this type of things without the nightclub. Exactly. And nightclub only almost provided a space for them to do it even bigger. The nightclub employees that were interviewed for Burning Sun said the VIP rooms almost seemed intentionally constructed to be in the very back of the club where no one can hear anything. Yeah, like they for sure planned... And it was under a hotel. Yeah.

I mean, it can't be a coincidence, right? That it's just the perfect setting. In 2016, Seungri is on top of the world. That's all people are talking about. That and Big Bang's new song, Fantastic Baby, the first K-pop music video to pass 300 million views on YouTube. The only other thing in the K-pop world that received that much attention in 2016 is probably the fried rice picture. A picture of fried rice goes viral in 2016.

2016 is a very strange year in the K-pop world. A K-pop idol by the name of Seolli or Sully goes viral for her Instagram picture of her fried rice. This is the picture.

You know those like hibachi grills, like silver top grills? Well, there's a pile of fried rice on there and the rice has been rearranged to look like it spells, I love you, I heart you. But the I is shaped like a private part and there's two eggs at the bottom that look like balls, right?

Sully posts that onto her Instagram and quickly deletes it. But it's too late. She's a K-pop idol. It's already been re-uploaded by netizens and comments read, no way she actually did that. What a crazy bitch.

She must be getting some really good D right now. I honestly think once her attention drops, she's gonna release her own intimate video online. Wow, her boyfriend's D must be like a drug. I'm actually worried for her parents. A sane person wouldn't even post this on their private Insta. Are her parents not embarrassed for having raised their daughter like this? This was the confirmation for netizens. That little fried rice picture was confirmation that Sully, the K-pop idol, is a sex addict.

Another comment reads, she's a sex addict. She needs therapy. It's like she was born to be an adult star. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing. However you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage.

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Have you heard of the group fx? Yeah, yeah. They were one of the most iconic groups in kpop and Sulli was a member of fx.

Sully has this very ethereal quality to her. She looks like a fairy. That's what she was known for. People really, really love Sully. She is very angelic looking, talented, and it's really hard not to root for her. When she first debuted, it was released that when she was younger, she would go to this church retreat where these two girls would repeatedly bully her. They would hold her head underwater and not let her come up, nearly drowning her.

Since then, Sully suffered from severe aquaphobia and she wasn't even able to wash her face properly for the longest time. But she's like, that's not going to be my life. I am determined to challenge myself and overcome it. So one of her biggest bucket list items was going scuba diving.

which she is eventually able to check off. She has this very it factor about her. A famous director would even say she's confident, shines under bright lights, and has the face of a princess. Of course she was going to be famous.

2013, three years before the fried rice scandal, Sulli's image comes crashing down. She is caught by the paparazzi spending time with this rapper named Choi Ja, or I guess the English pronunciation would be Choi Za. There is just a lot to unpack here. Choi Ja is around 33 years old at the time. Sulli is 19. They have a 14 year age gap. On top of that, Choi Ja's rap name is allegedly after his quote, large penis.

So at first, both parties do not confirm the dating rumors, but a netizen posts on a forum about how they found Choi Ja's lost wallet and it had pictures of Seol-hee in it, which like, what are the odds? People start going crazy at this point. Again, their agencies are still denying the dating. SM Entertainment, the agency that Seol-hee is signed with, says Choi Ja is only a senior in the industry who is like an older brother to Seol-hee. They are not dating. Since they're close, though, they do meet often.

Eventually, the relationship gets confirmed and all hell breaks loose. It's just unleashed on mainly just Sully. I mean, I think we can all have our differing opinions on what age gaps we're comfortable with, but their relationship is not illegal. She was of age when they started dating. And I personally feel like I can't comment considering she seems to have a lot of love for him even after they break up. But I would hope...

that they were just good for each other, right? But there is a problem with how netizens react to the news of their relationship. After it's confirmed, news starts coming out about how Choi Ja is this romantic guy. He writes love songs for his girlfriend. That's the image that he's receiving in the media. Meanwhile, Sulli's Instagram is flooded with people calling her a sex addict, mainly because she's dating someone with a stage name that refers to his private parts.

Which he even later states he regrets his stage name for the sake of his mother. She's so mad at him for it. He wishes that he could change it, but it feels too late now. Basically, netizens feel like Sully is a slut for dating someone older than her. And on top of that, they start dissecting her Instagram pictures, ripping them apart. This is like the beginning of micro-analyzing every single picture that she ever uploads. Her every little movement, her every little breath is micro-analyzed.

these are just a few that netizens have a lot of issues with one of them just shows her wearing a cute mini dress that is sheer but you can't really see anything other than the outline of her thighs

Another one is her near a poster of a woman's butt. And it's like those cheeky little shops, you know, and they have the neon lights and she has her hand on the butt and she's looking back at the camera pouting fully clothed, like modest clothing at that point. Another one of her is doing a split fully clothed, but it's not even a split. It's like a regular Pilates pose.

She's just doing a backhand stand and it's like splitting. It's a Pilates pose. It's working out. And another one of her is in shorts, leaned up against the wall. All very normal, if not even pretty normal.

tame pictures to post on instagram for a celebrity but some netizens truly believed this was confirmation that sully is a full-blown sex addict they started flooding her instagram with comments like sully's a porn star now is this really the sweet sully we knew she just becomes crazier and crazier is she out of her mind

She just wants to suck Choi Ja's private parts. She has no talent, but she's good at being a pervert. She's ruining her own life. Where is the pure and innocent Sully now? I don't like her anymore. She's a slut. One netizen sums up the quote controversy really well, which is, an idol performs as a sexual object, but must pretend sex does not exist.

- What? - So they're saying SM Entertainment and all these agencies in K-pop will sexualize their idols to nobody's end for commercial success. But the minute that the idols themselves choose to do something with their body, that's not even inherently sexual. It's disgusting, it's vile, it's filthy. - Right, right, right. - It's like this weird sick gaslighting game that these people are playing on themselves.

The controversy becomes so big that either indirectly or directly it leads to Sulli leaving f , the group. She states that she will still be managed under SM Entertainment but will pursue acting. It is around this time that Sulli starts spending a lot of time with another famous kpop idol, Koo Hara. The two almost become best friends, inseparable, and they will die within a month of each other.

Kuhara is a singer that debuted with the girl group KARA. So both of them are from like the most massive girl groups of all time. KARA was huge back in the day. They are one of the most memorable girl groups. They were one of the most popular South Korean girl groups in Japan. And out of the five members, Japanese netizens once nicknamed Kuhara specifically the most beautiful Korean girl group member.

In Korea, at one point, she was even nicknamed Goo Barbie. And around the time that Sulli's dating scandal breaks, Gu Hara has her own dating scandal. She's photographed at a park, walking around, holding hands with a man. It's nighttime, so it does seem like the two of them are walking around at night to avoid being seen. It seems more of like a private little escape. That's what it looks like. The man in the picture with Gu Hara is Highlight band member Young Joon Hyung. And Highlight is a K-pop group. Yes.

and just wait, he's gonna come back around during Burning Sun. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Sulli and Hara are the ones that are mainly criticized and bullied for being in a relationship with other famous celebrities. At the time, the two guys, they don't really get much, if any, backlash.

Sully is accused of being a sex addict and a whore for dating someone over a decade older than her. Interestingly, he doesn't get hate for dating someone a decade younger than him. And as for Hara, a lot of toxic netizens just hate the fact that Joon Young didn't choose them and that he chose Koo Hara. Even though this is Koo Hara's very first public relationship, she's a full-fledged adult, netizens give her the title of being boy-obsessed.

Even though she spends almost every waking hour at work performing, practicing, doing tours in Japan and South Korea, and doing other work-related events, she is considered boy obsessed. All she can think about in that pretty little head of hers are boys. At this point, some netizens are so riled up about her relationship with Highlight member Junyoung that they're willing to do anything to prove that Gu Hara is not worthy of dating him.

Some netizens make it their full-time job to find something, anything that's going to confirm what they've all been thinking. Gu Hara is not special. She's really not that pretty or talented and she's not deserving of Chun-young. That's what they're thinking. They're crazy. They're honestly like vultures. They act like they're working for the CIA when in reality, they're not being compensated. It's not their job. They're weirdly obsessed. And instead of arguing something is for national security, they're just straight up trying to bully someone on the internet. Someone that doesn't even know that they exist and they find what they're looking for.

They dig deep into Hara's old social media from before she became famous and an old picture of her resurfaces kissing her boyfriend at the time.

It's not even like sexual. It's like a light little, and there's a picture taken. They keep digging. They come across a series of photographs that look like Hara and her then boyfriend. This is again before she's famous and her boyfriend's also not famous. There are a series of photos that look like from context clues. They're celebrating her birthday and maybe a dating anniversary. That's what it looks like, which is fine. But netizens find a few problems with it.

First, in this series of pictures, there's one photo of Hara and her boyfriend taking a picture in the mirror. Her boyfriend is holding up the camera and she has her arm around his shoulder. To me, the picture looks really normal, but a lot of people said that looks very suggestive and sexual.

Then, some of these netizens do more digging. They look for any sort of identifying pieces of furniture or layout in the place that the pictures are taken and they cross-reference them with houses, hotels, pensions in the area. And they come to the conclusion that the couple were renting out a pension for this anniversary event.

A pension, first of all, it's staying the night together at a place, which is crazy to them. Now, to give additional context, a pension is a short-term rental. It honestly is just like renting out an Airbnb. But Korean netizens have stated, the idea of spending the night at a pension with your significant other is regarded in Korea as the same as spending the night at a hotel or a motel with your significant other. Basically, you mentioned the word pensions and Koreans will assume sex is involved.

Then the third thing that netizens hunt down is the picture of Hara. And the picture is horrendous quality, but you can tell it's Hara. And she has this cake in front of her and they count the number of candles and discover she's turning 17. When all of this starts circulating on the internet, Kuhara's friends come out to say, actually, we were all there celebrating her birthday. You can't see us in the pictures, but we were all there celebrating her birthday as a group. And this is wild. You guys are insane. Like netizens need to calm down.

The netizens are on a rampage though. They're out for blood. They're not going to stop now. They go as far as calling the listed pension, asking about reservations that would have been made that year under the name Kuhara. No? Then what about these names? The list of Kuhara's friends that came out and said that they were there. The manager stated there were no reservations under those names.

The netizens take that as, okay, that means it must have been under Kulhara's boyfriend's name and it must have just been them as a couple. They go back to the fine print of the pension listing website and it says this specific pension only allows reservations for couples. They go through the listing photos. You can see a shower is made of glass and you get a clear view from it from the bedroom. So it kind of feels like a love centered pension site.

The netizens say this is basically a love motel. So there, they did it. They did all of this work to prove that Kuhara maybe, maybe had underage sex or maybe she just rented out a pension so she could hang out with her boyfriend.

From then on, there would be articles about Kuhara. One article would be titled, "Kuhara Party Pictures: Mannequin Body and Perfect Proportions." So it's just talking about her body, which is already such a questionable title. But the comments would read, even years after this, "We're interested in her pension, not her fashion." Kuhara is not normal. She went to a pension that had a bathroom with glass walls with her boyfriend when she was 17 years old.

Another article that has nothing to do with Kuhara, a netizen writes about Kuhara's pension. It's not the idols that are going through a hard time, but the company CEOs. Stop backstabbing the companies that helped you rise to fame and treat them well. Kids these days always causing trouble. Wait, who? Treating who well?

So this comment is about another scandal that was a stupid scandal of another K-pop idol. And the comment reads, these K-pop idols are ruining these SM Entertainment and all these entertainment company CEOs lives by creating these scandals. There is a talk show called Radio Host where celebrities will be interviewed by other celebrities or they call them MCs. At one point, they were to a degree considered the talk show that was not afraid to ask tough questions for celebrities.

Kara was going to be on the show, and from the get-go, the show gets off to an intense start. The host's label in front of her face on TV, Kuhara, as a relationship idol. I guess implying that she's not known for her talent or her skill or for her music, but she's mainly known for her series of alleged relationships and relationship scandals.

Side note, this is after Kuhara and her fellow idol boyfriend highlight member breakup. Kuhara was actually spotted out with another idol around that time and they were just grabbing lunch. I saw the paparazzi pictures. They look pretty platonic. They look like friends grabbing lunch, which even if they're not, even if they are dating, doesn't matter. But every single thing that Hara did, every interaction with any man is scrutinized. So of course, when these pictures come out, the comments read, it has to be a

It hasn't even been that long since she broke up with Joon Young, her ex. If they really are dating, Gu Hara moves on so fast. This guy can do so much better. I say this as a fan of the male idol. You can date girls. Just date girls on your level. Gu Hara's not on your level. Meaning she's beneath him.

Another reads, don't care, but he can do so much better. She was in and out of a pension with a man since junior high and then dated Joon Young not too long after her debut. And here she is with another man. She's one of those typical girls who just can't live without a guy.

That is so crazy because in America, when a celebrity gets in a relationship, most of the time people are very happy. Yeah. And it's almost like a good thing for them, right? Like relationship usually helps their career. Yeah. But in Korea, it's like,

that it's the end. It's, yeah, it's so crazy. I, I find it a red flag when there are K-pop fans that hate idols being in relationships. Maybe if they're in a relationship with someone really dangerous or problematic, that's one thing. But if it's the idea of them dating is just bizarre. Yeah.

it's pretty clear that Hara knows that the hosts of the show are going to try and talk to her about these incidents and she's not wrong. Ku Hara is instantly uncomfortable when the hosts turn their attention to her and they start off by saying that Hara was scared to be on radio host and they're joking about it they're like hee hee haing but they say that in and of itself is telling because a guilty conscious needs no accuser they're like what are you scared of if you have nothing to hide

One of the hosts straight up asks her, what questions are you the most scared of? If you tell us, just don't talk about this. We won't talk about it. Had a response. You're still going to ask about it anyway, even if I say, and the whole time she's smiling, she's playing along. She's not trying to kill the energy and be firm. Like, no, this is my boundary. She's being very cordial. No, no, no, no. We won't ask about it. If you tell us dating, I don't want to talk about dating. The male host responds. Oh, that would take too long. Anyway, which part or person do you not want us to talk about?

anything to talk about why do you guys keep doing that to me it's because if we take out the dating conversations when we talk to girl groups then there's not really anything we can talk about wow one of the hosts who has since regretted his statements turns to her and says oh she's like the dating idol

I'm the what? The dating idol. I'm not. Hada has a water bottle in her hand and she slides it across the table. I almost missed it because she doesn't chuck it. She doesn't throw it. She doesn't even slide it with much force. It's very like, stop.

stop it's like if you were to throw a tissue at someone or to kind of gently tap someone's arm like stop it it's more of the action that signals something rather than she's trying to hurt somebody remember this bottle she pushes the bottle to the host that calls her the dating idol and she's trying to laugh it off but the host all seems shocked that she threw the bottle this is crazy like

Obviously she doesn't She's like saying no Like how much more do you want someone to say no to And then she gets called out for being Not nice or Oh that's nothing She's gonna have to formally apologize

In a joking way, the host said, "Oh, you're giving this to us for him to drink it, right?" Headlines will read, "Kool Hara Gifts Host with a Drink" and they're all laughing. So you don't want us to talk about your dating. Yes, because even if we open the door and I talk about it, there's going to be weird articles written about it. Listen, some advice, typically once articles keep coming out, people stop caring so much. But interestingly enough, I looked into it and your relationship life doesn't seem as passionate as one might imagine.

As I've said before, our Japanese promotions were very long. And that's all I'm going to say about that. The host joke that throughout the show, they're going to keep asking her. They literally say in front of her, it's okay. During the rest of the show, we'll keep nudging her to talk about it gently, like here and there. And she just laughs and says, no, no, no, no, please. No. One of the hosts pulls out his cards, like half of his cards that he's reading questions off of. Cause you know, those talk shows, they have little key cards and he says, well, if we don't ask about Hara's dating life, I guess half these cards are gone.

Up until this point, it's a little awkward. You can tell Hara does not want to talk about these certain things, but the way that the both sides are playing it off, maybe you could pass it off as like one he, he joke, the four male hosts and Kuhara. And it is up until this point, again, it's not uncomfortable to watch because she's trying so hard to nicely, very professionally and without killing this lighthearted atmosphere, she's trying to set a boundary.

But the tone starts to shift when the girls reveal that one of the male hosts came to see them in the dressing room before the show. To which the guy emcees poke fun at the fact that the senior went to go say hi to the juniors. In Korean culture, typically the younger person or the junior in the industry has to go to the seniors and like say hello. Thank you for having me. Wait, they brought that this up in the middle of the show?

The girls brought it up and said, oh yeah, earlier when he came to visit us in the dressing room and then the male MCs are like, wait, the senior went to say hi to you juniors?

- Wow. - And the girls are freaking out and they're all waving their hand, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we were getting ready." Because immediately this is gonna look really bad on news. - And they know what they're doing. - Yeah. - Like they are purposefully like setting them up right now. - Yes, and I know for maybe not a Korean audience, it sounds like, why would that be a setup? But in Korea, these types of honorifics, it's basically going up to your boss and being like,

Like that's literally what they're saying. - No, worse than that. It's like a person without manner, just rude, disgusting, disrespectful. - Disrespectful. Thinks they're the shit, thinks that they rule the world. Like it's giving a very bad connotation. And the girls, of course they start freaking out. They're waving their hand. No, no, no, no, no. We were getting ready. Come say hi, we were getting ready first, but we had to get ready first.

Then another one of the Kara members reveals that one of the hosts came to say hi and Hara told him, please go easy on us. Like our personal lives. Let's just keep it personal. But instantly that's the first thing you guys bring up. Like the girls are bringing this up very lighthearted. Like again, we told you not to talk about it. And that's the first thing you brought up. Why are you guys doing this? But again, it's very, it's presented in such a graceful, classy manner, but the hosts don't like this is what I get.

It's purely a guess, obviously, but this is kind of where the tone of the episode starts shifting. One of the male hosts turns to the co-host and says, I heard you know a lot about their personal lives. The male host looks very tense and he says, if I open my mouth, I can end kuhara. Instantly, kuhara stands up and again, she's smiling. She's still using her aegyo voice, which in Korea is like soft, cute voice. It's like she's joking angry, like stopping.

end me like oppa you can't be 100 confident either she starts laughing and fanning her face and the hosts start cracking up and the guys just reassure her that he's joking he's joking but hara sits back down and turns around in her seat she's facing away from the cameras and slowly the room goes silent wait are you actually crying right now hara turns around smiling and wipes a tear from her eyes and goes sorry i was just really angry one of the other cara members goes to grab a tissue

And another one is smiling and tells the host, oh, you guys took it a little too far. And if anything, the male hosts look very uncomfortable, almost shocked at the outcome of this, as if the girls did not give them repeated signs and clear boundaries that they did not want to talk about this. The host tried to lighten the mood by saying the show has a history of making people cry.

But either way, it's bad. I mean, even what he said about, if I open my mouth, I can end kuhara, the implication of that, it's not a question of if kuhara is doing something that the public would not like. It frames the situation as, she is, you just don't know about it. Like, she definitely is. And you can't even, like, you can't even... Prove, disprove that. Yeah, exactly. That's all people are going to talk about now. Yeah.

Now, a few things to note the whole time, Hara remains completely civil, professional, sweet. She's using aegyo the entire time, even when she's trying to indicate that she does not want to talk about this. She's playing along. She does not kill the mood. She does not make anyone feel uncomfortable. Even when she's crying, she's laughing it off and saying, sorry, I was just too angry. She's not being somber in the corner, like crying, like, why are you guys doing this to me? It's not like that. She honestly held herself with so much grace considering the situation.

At this point, a few things to remember. Again, in the K-pop world, dating is not the same as Hollywood. It is a scandal. Even talking about allegations of dating is intense. Hara is already being bullied. She likely felt immense anxiety at even the mention of the word dating because every time that word gets brought up, she can probably see all the hate comments, the cyberbullying, the lost ambassadorships, just her whole career that she's worked her whole life for going down the drain. For what? For allegations of dating?

She's trying to tell the host nicely not to talk about it, but instead they make jokes. They hint at the fact that they know things that would end her career, insinuating she's doing bad things. I mean, watching this clip, I just don't see how anyone would not feel for Hara's frustration or side with her.

Side note, the host will later state that the episodes are scripted. So the male host said the one that said he could open his mouth and end Kuada. He said that all of it was scripted. He has since apologized and he actually did leave the show because he just felt very uncomfortable. Apparently, some say he left because military enlistment. I don't know. But the comments at the time read the male host obviously look very taken aback.

I mean, look at his facial expression. It got tense. Did she seriously throw a water bottle in front of so many of these huge seniors? So she was sitting next to JYP, which is also a huge name in the industry. He said like zero during this entire conversation. They keep bringing JYP up. How is she doing this in front of JYP? What's the point of even coming onto the show if you're going to act like this? It's not like she doesn't know what the show is about. Which side note, like I said, the water bottle throwing, you can't even really call it that.

Like you really can't. Also, you think Hara has a choice in the show she goes on? Her agency very likely told her, you're going on this show. Another comment reads, this is the first time I changed the channel while watching Radio Star. I never really cared for Hara or hated on them in particular, but their attitude is just ridiculous. I could feel the male host in shock. So many industry seniors and they dare act with such disrespect. They need to be taught immediately. They're so disrespectful.

Another reads kids these days. Coolada, I heard you bought a million dollar building. If you make that much money without having any talent whatsoever, you can handle shit like this without crying. Another reads empty headed with no talent whatsoever as a singer. Seems like these girls think they're worse shit just because they're a bit popular. Who do they even think they are?

I really am not the type to leave comments like this, but I'm just too angry. Exactly what do these girls think they are to go around acting like this at a place with so many seniors sitting around screaming and crying about their own mistakes, accusing a host of not being proud of his own past? And why is Kuleta's face so unnatural? Her eyes are all swollen and it's obvious that she's done some work to her lips. If Hara doesn't want controversy for dating, then please act with some dignity. She cried and ruined the entire atmosphere over something that wasn't even a big deal.

Obviously, she's hiding something for her to be crying like that. The male MCs, they look so awkward. And who does her fellow member think she is butting in like that, defending her? God, they're such a mess. Another comment just reads, you better answer the questions. Do you think you're a princess or something? You need to provide for the pay you're being given. So disrespectful. Cry all you want. Cry for 100 days. Your controversies aren't going away.

There was a netizen poll done around the time where people were asked if they believed the MCs if they crossed the line or if Koo Hara crossed the line. 91% of netizens that answered the poll thought Hara crossed the line. Hara had to formally apologize for crying on the talk show and formally apologize for not being professional after being harassed. Yeah, she had to apologize for making the male host feel uncomfortable.

Side note, if you compare Hara's comments from her segment on Radio Host to interviews that her ex-boyfriend from Highlight did after their breakup, they should be the same, right? He should also be considered just as controversial as her, just as girl-obsessed, because it takes two people to date. The comments on the segment read, "'It's been so long since he and Hara broke up. Leave him alone.'" See, this is why celebrities don't want to be public with their dating life. It gets used against them over and over again on shows like this.

I always thought he could do better anyway. Let's move on from these comments. This is the best radio star could come up with asking about Kuhara? Kuhara isn't even relevant these days. Oh wait, so he went on radio... Host as well. But these are the comments. People are defending him. Yeah. They comment, Joon Young has achieved so much in his career and yet they ask him these low-grade questions about his dating life and Kuhara? Why would the host even think that's appropriate to ask about Kuhara? How would he feel if someone grilled him about his ex-wife?

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Five years after Koo Hara's appearance on Radio Host, in 2018, a new Google trending search result gains traction. You know how if a lot of people Google something, it becomes a trending search? The trending search in South Korea becomes Koo Hara video. The second trending search is Koo Hara sex video, Koo Hara sex relationship. There were threads on forums dedicated to the trending search, and they read, where can I watch the actual video? I want to see it. Does somebody know where I can find it?

The sick part of all of this is Kuhara never wanted this video to be seen. The quote "sex video" in question is actually revenge explicit material. Videos taken of her doing intimate acts without her consent that she is being blackmailed by. Kuhara filed a police report and news broke and a lot of netizens not only do they not feel sympathy for her but they want to watch it.

The whole situation with the search trends starts with the assault case between Kuhara and her ex-boyfriend. He's a hair stylist that we are going to be calling CJ. This all starts unraveling September 2018. This is from the beginning of the episode.

And I'm going to tell you how it's reported because during the unraveling of the situation, there were a lot of people switching sides. The tides just keep turning. Obviously hindsight is 20, 20, but at the time, like, I think it's important to note the types of comments that Kuhara is getting throughout this whole situation. Initially reports start coming out that Kuhara assaulted her boyfriend for breaking up with her.

I will say after this one singular report, Hada receives a lot of hate because I mean, yeah, the only report there is as of this point is that she hit her boyfriend. But even then, some netizen comments are just questionable. They write pensions, cigarettes, living together, violence. The answer is all there. She's crazy. She just dates nonstop as if she cares anymore about what the news says about her. She's rich enough to own a building.

another reads i heard she does drugs so her boyfriend wants to break up with her and she goes to the extreme to get him to stay but that same day a second report is released a very short one this time it states that kuhara has reported to the police that this was a two-sided assault case she told authorities that it was cj that hit and kicked her first the kangnam police seem to agree with the fact that they both harmed each other because the kangnam police would later report it appears both parties assaulted one another

And this causes even more confusion amongst the netizens. There are a few groups of people now, people that support Hada, people that support neither and think that physical violence is never okay, regardless of who started it and who ended it. And people who are questioning both parties' stories, saying, I personally don't understand the man. Even if she hit him, he basically tattled to the police. Was he not able to resolve it between the two of them? I feel like he's using her status as a celebrity against her. Some people start questioning if Hada's boyfriend even hit her. Why? Were they there?

Why would they question if Hara was ever hit? Like, that's such a weird thing. Did they receive special anonymous sources? No. They said, let's be real. The boyfriend let her hit him. If he really wanted to beat her back, she'd be hospitalized right now. She doesn't realize how grateful she should be, but instead she's accusing him of assaulting her too. If he really beat her, she'd be hospitalized and his life would be over. That's gender discrimination for ya.

Soon, a third report comes out. This report states that Hara is currently in the hospital. She's currently being treated for injuries sustained from the incident with her boyfriend.

She's being treated. Almost immediately after that report is released, Hada's boyfriend, CJ, the hairdresser, sits down with the news network to share his side of the story. He says, I didn't know that me calling the police for both of our safety would become such a big issue. Some of the news reports are reporting things about me that are just completely false without consent. So I decided to do this interview.

I didn't break into Kuara's house. The passcode for the house is the day we met and we were using the space together, implying that they moved in together, which is a huge implication in Korean society before getting married.

I'm just shocked by the malicious comments. Currently, I'm unable to receive help from anyone. I don't know what to do. I'm also in pain physically and emotionally. If it's a crime to be the one to request a breakup, then it's my fault. However, it's not a two-sided assault case. We used to be lovers, but now we're separating with scars like this and it just pains me. I may be a non-celebrity, but I hope that Hara herself will reflect back on this apart from her status as a celebrity and apologize to me.

For a day or two, the reports go silent. Then, Kluhara's boyfriend does another interview. This time, he releases pictures of his bloodied face to news outlets. He has two scratches on his forehead and one above his eye. They're pretty deep, and

And they look pretty bloody. The article states he also has a one and a half inch wound under his eyes, bruises and abrasions on his forearms and a few injuries on his back. The injuries in the picture, I will say, do look intense. And of course, netizens turn on Hara. Along with the pictures, Hara's ex-boyfriend gives another statement. He says, and again, this is his second statement. And we have almost no statements from Hara other than her stating that this was a two sided assault case.

The ex-boyfriend tells the media outlets, "I've never thrown a fist at anyone in my life. Moreover, I have never struck a woman like that. If Kuara got bruised, it was only through physical contact to calm her down when she hit and scratched me, and it was not caused by my fist or other violence. This is not true, I swear." He also complained that his wounds were so deep that it made social life quite difficult.

Whatever that means. I don't know what that means. Regardless, a lot of netizens are upset with Hara. Some even argue that Hara had no injuries listed about her face. She showed up to the police station and she had no injuries on her face. But look at his face. He has injuries. They stated that if two people are violently assaulting each other in a domestic violence situation, they will go for each other's faces because it's heightened emotions, which means because she has no scars on her face, he didn't assault her.

Which is crazy. People are just exposing themselves as potential domestic abusers because what are you saying? Side note, at this time, Korean news outlets, one of them, they used this picture for the article, which is of...

kuhara allegedly assaulting her boyfriend but the picture is from kuhara on a variety show boxing another contestant and it's a mid-action shot where she looks like she's about to punch the other contestant and i'm sure it's all fun and games like it's within the game parameters like that's what she's supposed to do but to use that in an article about domestic violence where it's questioned right now who the assaulter is is crazy yeah yeah yeah yeah

She could be a victim. She could be the pure assault. We don't know anything at this point, technically. But they use that picture of her. Other netizens speculated that the injuries on CJ are so bad, so strong that no girl can do that. No skinny K-pop idol can do that. So that leads netizens to believe and openly speculate. Kuhara must be on drugs. Drugs give you superhuman strength. That's the only way you can inflict those injuries on a full grown man.

Kuara then releases her side of the story with Dispatch. She does not come alone either. She brings her roommate. Let's call her Bella. They call her Mrs. B in the media files. Bella is Hara's roommate and she was there when the assault took place. Kuara brings her phone with messages between her and CJ, her ex. She brings her full medical records, a full account of what happened that night. The two girls tell Dispatch, this is what happened.

And it all starts because of a work lunch appointment. A few days before the incident, Hara had to go to lunch with her manager and a guy who also works in the industry. So literally, it'd be like going to lunch with your male coworker.

And it's not even just a guy that works in the industry. She's supposed to do a photo shoot with him. She's not even that close with him. And they had this upcoming photo shoot. So this lunch, they're going over all the details with the manager. But Hara knows the minute she even mentions that another guy is going to be there, that it's not just her and her manager. It's going to be a whole thing. CJ is going to blow it up into some big deal and they're going to fight over it. And she just, oh,

omits that detail. She tells dispatch, "He's usually very good to me. He's caring, but whenever any guys come up, we fight. If I get a call from a close colleague or an oppa, he becomes very scary. He says things that shouldn't be said. I didn't want to fight because of that, so that's why I didn't tell him if there were gonna be guys at that meeting. It was the same day. I just didn't want to cause any trouble that day."

Bella Butson. He was suspicious of even all of her work relationships. He always checked on her by asking, who is he? What are you doing? And if she went drinking, he would say really harsh things, disturbing things that are difficult to hear. Hara would lie because she didn't want to fight and the vicious cycle would just repeat itself. Actually, Hara once tried to break up with him and she wrote a letter saying, let's just end it here. And he burned it in the restroom.

In summary, the guy loses his mind if she's around another man and he seems terrifying when he's mad, which is why Kulada tells him she's just going to lunch with her manager. He finds out. He finds out that there's another guy there and instead of self-reflecting on why his girlfriend might feel the need to lie to him, he blows up. Hara tries to visit him two days after the lunch to try and explain to him why she hid it from him, explain the situation, but he doesn't want to hear it. He kicks her out. He does not talk to her for the rest of the day until 1230 in the morning.

CJ gets drunk, shows up at Kuara's house. He gets in through the front door because he knows her house key code. Most Korean residences have a keypad instead of a key. He punches in the code, lets himself in and starts looking for Kuara. Hara is sleeping in her roommate's room that night. They both just fell asleep talking to each other, hanging out. He finds her and he's standing over the two girls and he starts using his foot to kick Hara. He's pissed. He's kicking her nonstop. Are you sleeping? You're able to really fucking sleep right now, huh?

The roommate Bella wakes up, but it's so uncomfortable. So she just pretends to still be asleep. And she says that he sounded very, very drunk. Eventually, Hara gets up and tries to talk to him, but he's getting very emotional. The two of them leave the roommate's room to figure it out in private. And Bella can hear them. And at first, it sounds like muffling, like they're arguing, but trying to keep it down. Slowly, it turns into full blown fighting and not just screaming. But Bella can hear things being thrown, can hear people being slapped. She can hear furniture being broken, broken.

Outside, CJ is grabbing Hara by the hair, throwing her around. Hara is fighting back, trying to get him off of her. He has scratches on his face. He throws Hara up against the wall and throws a pretty big air purifier at her, which air purifiers are the size of small carry-on suitcases, like the one it's pictured. They're not small little humidifiers.

He starts pushing her, swearing at her and Hara fights back. She screams, who are you to push me? Who are you to curse at me? Which I think in English, it sounds very much like, who are you? I'm better than you. Who are you? You're nothing, right? But in Korean, it's a little bit different. There's some missing context. It's typically used more in the sense of, no, you, I'm not going to put up with this treatment. Like it's almost like self-talk. Yeah, yeah. It's like, who are you? Like, I'm not going to take this from someone. I'm not going to do this. I'm going to stand up.

rather than i'm better than you who are you like it's not like that but he does kind of try to spin it like that later bella rushes out of the room and bella sees in hara's room the whiteboard on the wall knocked off the door is broken the air purifier is partially broken hara's face is swollen her jaw looks messed up her arms and legs are swollen and scratched and cj tells hara i'm gonna fuck you over i'm gonna make sure your career is over

Eventually, things calm down enough so that CJ starts gathering up all of his stuff. He starts making his way down to his car. And to back that up, there is CCTV footage of both of them in the elevator at around 1:20 in the morning. They're both standing in the elevator, somewhat analyzing their wounds in the elevator mirrors. CJ is carrying luggage, and again, presumably his luggage after breaking up with Hara, and he's smoking a cigarette in the elevator. Which side note, a lot of K-netizens pick up on this detail. So first of all, you're not allowed to smoke in elevators.

And second of all, in Korean culture, it's just considered a man who smokes in front of a woman, especially a romantic partner. Unless that woman smokes, it's a very stereotypical guy image you get. Like it's a very specific man who does that. And he's just like smoking in the elevator in front of her. It's just, it's...

It's kind of like, I guess, a trashy look. So that gets used as evidence later, but I'm just bringing it up because there's a lot of discourse. Anyway, CCTV footage shows them heading into the parking lot where CJ gets into his car, turns it on, and he just sits in his car idling for a little bit. He's sitting there at 1.26 a.m. sending an email. Keep this detail in mind. This email is very important. No.

Then he drives off and texts Hara once he's gone. He just texts her, no words, two files, two video files. The first one is a 30 second clip of them being intimate. Then another eight second clip. It is a threat without words. He sends two videos of her to her. Yeah, it's a threat without words, but he tries to spin it. Just wait.

Kuhara does not respond because she's busy calling the guy that she had lunch with, the male coworker. There's a lot to unpack here, but it appears that him sending this message to her, sending her the videos after their fight, it's definitely a, hey, look, I'm going to spread these. Look what I have over you. Why does Kuhara immediately call the guy that she and her manager had lunch with? Because previously CJ told her that he wants both of them, Hara and the guy coworker to get on their knees and beg him for forgiveness for that lunch.

Cuara is trying to give this unhinged blackmailer what he wants because he's threatening her. But because she's calling this guy, she's not responding to his text messages. And every time CJ calls her, her phone has a busy tone and he texts her a few minutes later. You're like a real estate agent, unreachable. I'm wondering why I have to wait. You said to come. I can come to you. Never mind. My trust was broken because I can't reach you. So you're just going to leave? You told me to make the call to them, to the guy.

You sure are on your phone for a long time. Squiggle, squiggle. Like he's trying to make it very passive aggressive. Wait, so at this point, Guajara is trying to call the guy to apologize to him? I'm sure she's trying to explain and this would be like the world's biggest favor. And I'm sure as like a fellow industry professional, he probably would have. Yeah, but that just shows how desperate she was. She even calls the head of her former agency, but it's like two in the morning. No one's picking up.

She said, you told me to tell him the whole story so he would come and kneel. Let's meet and talk. He said he's coming. He said he's almost arriving. Talk? I don't want to talk. Why should I talk? Like I said, I'll have him kneel before you. What difference would that make? You said that's what you want. CJ then sends a picture of a scratch on his forehead and he continues to make sarcastic remarks. He also sends a photo of him calling her and she's not picking up. He texts, looks like you're busy. You said let's meet.

I guess I'll just do my own thing from now on then. So sorry, do we know who he is? Oh yeah, yeah. He's a hairstylist in Gangnam. His information is out there? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Is he still out and about? He was, but now he's like pretty under the radar.

But there's nothing, he's not like charged with anything though. He does later. He gets charged. Yeah. But it's a whole thing. The judge is crazy. Everybody's crazy. Like it's never ending. Just when you think, well, justice came late, but maybe we'll get some justice. No, no.

She texts, where are you? I'll come to you. He sends a picture of his face. Even if I wash my face, I can't go to work thanks to you. Oh, sorry. You're probably meeting that guy of yours. Sorry to interrupt your nightlife. I just wanted to ask you what I should do about my face. She doesn't respond. And two minutes later, he texts again. Hello, if you don't respond, I'm just going to go to the police.

He ends up coming back to her place and she does indeed get on her knees as evidenced by the CCTV footage. The guy friend does not show up. I don't know if she told him not to. I don't know if he was still on his way, but he calls the police and accuses her of being an abuser anyway. He conveniently makes no mention of his blackmailing or threats.

Cuara states, the video and pictures were taken without her consent or awareness. She says she's ready to face the consequences of assaulting him as well in this two-sided assault situation, but she says, he threatened me with the video. For a female entertainer, what could be more terrifying? I acknowledge the hurt I caused. I will be punished for it, but what about the other hurt he caused me? He's a blackmailer.

Her medical records also that she gave to dispatch, which is saying a lot on how desperate she was to get the truth out there. Dispatch is a tabloid that ruins people's lives. Like the fact that she trusted them and went to them is like, she is truly just like trying to get the news out there.

She's like, please, someone needs to believe me. Because, you know, tabloids, celebrities, they have very tense relationships. Doctors listed on the reports that Hara suffered from uterus and vaginal bleeding, multiple forearms, sprains, seizures, and more. The vaginal bleeding is unexplained, whether it's from trauma or from any other condition. But it is stated in her records.

dispatch releases pictures that shows all the bruises on her arms legs wrist hands knees ankles it's pretty intense the bruises aren't even just brown they're bright red like blood blotches all over her body and for the few netizens that still don't like hara for some bizarre reason further proof that she's telling the truth cj hara's ex-boyfriend sent two emails to dispatch the same tabloid that night

Hara came out with the piece through... Dispatch. And then he reached out. No, he reached out during the assault. The night of the assault. And then later Hara went to dispatch and dispatch was like, you know what? We trust you also because of this.

And they're like one of the emails that they received from her ex-boyfriend was at 1.26 a.m. that night before the police are called. This is when he first gets into the car to leave and he's sitting in the parking lot idling. An email to tabloid dispatch reads, I have a report to make about Kuhara. Please give me a call.

The second one is sent at 4.20 a.m., which would have been after the police came. It reads, subject, report on Clara. Message, it won't disappoint. Please contact me. I can't send videos or pictures right now, but if you don't respond quickly, I'm going to reach out to another network instead. You really won't be disappointed.

I will say at this point, either netizens don't know about what's going on or they're not keeping up with the news or they're on Kuhara's side. I would imagine if somebody is not, they need a lot of self-reflection. But CJ does not stop. He's on truly some unhinged mission to ruin Kuhara, even if it means taking himself down. CJ, the ex-boyfriend, responds this time with his attorney and the attorney states, it is

It's true that the video exists. In terms of how the video came to be filmed, it was Kuhara who wanted to film the video first and over 80% of the video was led and filmed by her. When my client asked, why are we filming this? Kuhara replied, I want to treasure a loving memory. While filming, when the phone fell down, Kuhara set it back up. The fact that Kuhara led the filming of the video can easily be confirmed through the video. Okay, but that still doesn't explain the blackmailing with it. It makes sense. Okay, yeah, they filmed it, but he's literally threatening her with it. Yeah.

The attorney says, "If his goal was to leak or exploit the video, wouldn't he have already done so?"

Well, he was going to. Yeah, he was trying. I'm sorry he was unsuccessful, but he was trying. But he keeps yapping. Look, they fought because of Cuara's lies and issues with men. When my client stated that he was leaving Cuara because of her lies, she started the fight by grabbing him and saying, who are you to leave me? We will stand by our statement that the assault was one-sided. Cuara's bruises were most likely born when my client held her hand, trying to stop her from attacking. And as she fell and toppled when she tackled him, he did not hit her.

Then CJ's attorney tries to guilt trip the public. My client's mother has become ill due to shock after hearing about this quote, revenge porn issue. He has been holding back in consideration for the other party, but he is now being accused of being a heinous criminal. At the end of this very long nonsensical statement, the attorney states that CJ, his client, will be suing Kuhara for defamation.

In another interview, CJ stands by the argument. The interviewer asked CJ, I mean, okay, regardless of if she wanted to film the video or not, like it is weird to send the video to her after a fight, like with no other accompanying message. How is a woman going to interpret that?

He defends himself and said, the reason for sending it is like I said before, it wasn't like I was trying to do something with it. She took it herself, right? And basically after the fight, I was like consolidating my files and I was deleting files and I was like, okay, I guess I should just send this to her because she's the one that took it. He's basically saying I was Marie Kondo-ing my phone and I needed her to have it back because she took it. I don't even know why it's on my phone. I mean, who's gonna even...

like buy into any of this the police the police agree with cj during the investigation the police concluded initially they will change their mind but they conclude that there is no definitive evidence that cj was going to intentionally spread the video he was no longer going to be investigated for violating the sexual violence act aka spreading sexual abuse through explicit videos aka blackmail or what used to formally be known as revenge porn

He's still going to be investigated for other charges, assault, breaking and entering Hara's home. But a lot of women all over South Korea had a problem with this. They were pissed. They start feeling like, wait,

Kluhada's boyfriend plays victim, calls her the abuser, makes her seem like this crazy girl that doesn't want to let him go, when in reality he's toxic, he's abusive, maybe not physically up until this point, but that night he was. But so far he's been mentally and emotionally abusive, making her so terrified that she can't even go to a work meeting without lying. Then he publicly

shames her and turns out he was the abuser and he's blackmailing her with these revenge videos but the police are not going to charge him with that because he only threatened her with it and did not explicitly tell her in words that he was going to spread it even though there are emails to tabloids that states that he has juicy information about her like how much more can a threat and intention be a threat and an intention

The petition was started by K netizens to strengthen the punishment for even the possession of revenge videos regardless of whether or not it is distributed. The petition gained over 200,000 signatures in five days, which is really fast in Korea.

And the prosecutors would somewhat listen. The new indictment would state, CJ used a cell phone camera to take pictures of the victim against her will, including her thighs, kicking and cursing at her while she was sleeping, pushing her chest with her hand, dragging her to the closet, kicking her in the stomach. When the victim clawed at the defendant's face, he threatened her by sending her a video via messenger and he stated to her in person, I will end your celebrity life.

So this whole incident will turn into a massive legal battle that lasts multiple years. But once the initial sympathy for Kuhara dies down, her steadfast haters who literally have no job but to hate her, they come back out of the woodworks. They will use this situation to call her a boyfriend beater, call her ugly and a liar. Kuhara goes silent on social media for a while. And back in November, so a few months after,

She comes back with an Instagram picture of, it looks like she's walking into a room and the room is called the crying room. So she takes a picture of the sign that reads crying room. What year was this by the way? 2018. 2018. Wow.

The caption reads, "I'm in pain and I'm tired." A lot of her fans flood the comments, "We'll be with you every step of the way. Please have strength. We're rooting for you." So a lot of her fans are becoming a lot more vocal now. But even after everything she's been through, there are still negative comments that read, "Difficult time but she still has to update her social media." "Crying room? Just stay quiet, you fool." "If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't even care about updating social media or taking a picture of some crying room."

I feel like she has a different brain setup than us. If you're sane enough to log onto social media and post a picture and write a caption, it's really not hard or difficult for you right now. Eight months later in 2019, middle of 2019, two things would happen.

CJ will make a formal apology on Instagram while the legal case is still ongoing. He writes, I want to sincerely apologize for causing so many people to worry. I wasn't able to respond to messages from friends, acquaintances, and people who love me because my KakaoTalk account was gone. I apologize once again for making so many people worry for so long and for causing disappointment. I want to live in repentance for causing such deep disappointment to my peers who trusted and worked with me and the people who supported me and my family. With this kind of heart and with the help and support of others, I want to sincerely apologize

I've been able to open up a salon after all this time. I'm lacking in a lot of ways, but as always, I will do my best as a stylist. Signed, Choi Jung-beom. So he came out to promote his new business? Yeah. He used his apology, that's not an apology, to soft launch his new hair salon.

It was shut down. Yeah. Because people were like, we're not going there. He had to close it down. Yeah. But around the same time, May 2019, Kool had a post on Instagram. I'm tired of pretending that I'm happy and everything is okay. I don't want to cause concern among other people. A few days later, she posted another Instagram picture with just a cryptic word. Goodbye.

After seeing that, Hara's manager starts panicking, starts calling her. No response. They drive to Hara's house and find her unconscious and in critical condition. She attempted to self-exit.

Thankfully, her manager rushes her to the hospital and the comments under the articles about her attempted self-exit read, "'Attention whore.' She'll look back on this in a few years and cringe at herself. "'The true attention whores never actually die. They feel satisfied with the attention they get from it. No point in worrying about celebrities. They're all rich and live well. They only appear once in a while when they need attention.'"

Two days after the incident, Hara is basically forced to make a public apology. She says to the media and to the public, "I'm sorry for causing concerns and causing a big deal. In terms of health, I am recovering. I had been in agony over a number of overlapping issues, but from now on, I will strengthen my heart and try to be healthy, and I'm sorry and thank you. I will overcome it harder and show you the best version of me."

While all of this is happening to Kuhara in 2019, Reporter Kang is still going through all the USB files. So now the timelines have merged. Kuhara attempts to self-exit. Reporter Kang is going through JJY's phones and she's releasing a few little articles about Burning Sun, but like the full death of Burning Sun is...

is not uncovered yet she's deep in trying to figure out who the police official is because there's clear evidence in the chat rooms that they know someone in power that's pulling strings for them one chat reads and this seems from context clues to be about maybe a drunk driving issue from Choi from FT Island he texts into the chat I got a call earlier from Yongsan the police station what do they say the officer in charge of my case wished me a happy birthday ha ha ha

Another text read, some fucker came in and took a shitload of photos of the interior of Burning Sun yesterday and snitched on us. But the police prosecutor general said they're snitching because they're jealous. So don't worry about it. He's going to sort it all out for us. Hee hee.

So reporter Kang, she's already released a few articles about the chat rooms, but right now finding out who their inside connection in the police is, is the most important part. It's such a crucial part of the investigation. They can't go to the police with the evidence of the chat rooms until they figure out who these officers are and which departments are involved. Because if they hand over the evidence now, the police might just cover it up. There's too much on the line to take a chance like that.

In 2019, Reporter Kang is sitting there pulling her hair out, trying to figure out who the hell this police officer is. So she's sitting there pulling her hair out, trying to figure out who this police officer is when her phone rings. Hello? There's a soft voice on the other end. Hello? Reporter Kang? This is Koo Hara. A K-pop idol reaching out to a reporter is unheard of. And for what? To help. Koo Hara said she wants to help.

Hara tells reporter Kang that she read the articles recently released about Seungri, JJY, and Choi. She knew them. They were all friends at one point and they used to come over to her house and hang out. And she didn't realize at that point, but she does remember now seeing some things on their phone that

And it just was weird. Like, I don't think she saw anything crazy, but she was just like, I don't know. The vibes were weird. And I guess with your articles, it just clicked. And I do think something is going on. I think you're right about it. Reporter Kang had never had a K-pop star talk so frankly with her. Usually their image is so tightly managed. They don't speak without attorneys or without a prepared statement they don't deviate from. Maybe it's something in Hara that makes Reporter Kang just trust her.

Because technically, she could have been told by the guys to call if they're all friends. But reporter King trusts her and she says, to be honest, Hara, I am not getting anywhere with this case. No one's taking my calls. Hara is quiet and says, well, I want to help. I don't know how much of a help I can be, but I want to help. There is something Hara can do for reporter King. She needs a name.

The name of the police official. It's never mentioned in the messages. Clearly, reporter King can't ask the police. She can't ask sources without tipping these involved off. She can't ask the parties involved, obviously, like they're going to tell her. She tells Hara, in the Kakao messages, they keep referring to a police contact that makes their problems magically go away. Someone they call the police prosecutor general. He helped with drunk driving charges and other fines, just making them banish. Can you get me the name of the police official?

Hara is rather friendly with most of the idols involved and this is before she knew what they were doing with Burning Sun. I mean, it's a small industry so everyone was kind of friendly with them. But she was actually pretty good friends with Choi from FT Island who is also involved in the chat rooms.

They were close even during their training days and likely they probably trauma bonded through what they had to go through to become idols. And I'm sure Hara, even after what she went through with her own situation with her ex-boyfriend, she likely has a lot of sense of feelings of betrayal for what Choi is accused of doing at this point because this is her friend. He's a good friend that's accused of committing very similar acts to what her boyfriend did to her. It's a lot to deal with, but she tells reporter Kang she's going to get Choi on the phone and they can record it.

Hara manages to get Choi on the phone and tells him. She doesn't lie to him. She doesn't secretly record him. She convinces him to tell journalist Kang what he knows about the police official. She tells him, I can help you. Tell the reporter everything you know. Reporter Kang speaks. It appears he's someone very high up. Choi says, yeah, yeah, we actually met once and played a round of golf together. I heard he's currently at the presidential residence working for the president. He did work for the police. It's a police officer named Yoo Kyung-gyun. Side note, I don't

want anyone to think Choi messed up but here he is willing to talk to a reporter and maybe showing remorse. No, it's very clear Ha Ra is the one that made him admit it. Reporter Kang was able to record the conversation and this was the big break in the case. Kang's reporting on the police officer with connections to the president's office that's helping out K-pop stars who are under investigation for crazy sex crimes.

After that report, a wide police investigation ensues and the burning sun investigation would only grow bigger from there. But reporter Kang cannot help but wonder, why would Koo Hara help her? I mean, don't get me wrong, she's forever grateful, but people in Hara's shoes probably would not. Especially right now, not too long after her self-exit attempt, after her countless battles with the media depicting her in this horrendous false light, why would she reach out to reporter Kang?

To have someone in the industry, the inside world, calling a reporter who's in the middle of bringing so many of those people in that industry down, that's a big deal. Reporter Kang said,

Yeah, it can't have been easy for a celebrity to just cold call a reporter the way she did. Hara was incredibly down to earth and brave. I was so grateful she was courageous enough to ask around for my contact number and reach out to me first. She said she wanted to help in any way to reveal the truth, and she was a really, really big help to us. What stays with me is that Hara was the one that persuaded Choi to talk to me, and within a few months, Ku Hara would be dead.

And reporter Kang, along with the rest of the public, could not help but notice some very sick parallels in Koo Hara's life and her friend Soli's life, two of the most hated K-pop idols at the time, and the parallels between their scandals, their life, their career, compared to Seungri, JJY, and Choi, some of the most beloved K-pop idols of the time, and how the ones that are actually worthy of love do not get it until it's too late.

This is part one of this episode. Part two will be uploaded on Sunday where we will cover the new updates of Burning Sun, how all the guys are trying to make a comeback and the deaths of both Sully and Kuhara. So please stay safe and I will see you guys in the next one.