Reason Burning Sun Scandal’s Ugly Hidden Side Was Only Revealed Through BBC Documentary?

On May 19th, foreign media BBC uploaded a documentary about the Burning Sun Scandal under the title “Burning Sun: Exposing the secret K-pop chat groups”.

The documentary covered the whole Burning Sun Scandal in detail with a clear timeline, such as explaining conversations that the members of Jung Joon-young’s group chat had while group raping a drunk woman. They described how women were treated like toys at drinking parties and revealed footage of Seungri, who called himself “Seungsby (Seungri + Gatsby)”, forcibly grabbing the hand of a woman who didn’t want to go with him and yelling at her. 

In addition, a victim, who lost consciousness and woke up finding herself being sexually assaulted and begging to be released, also delivered testimony by herself. It was hard to believe that these crimes continued for years under the protection of a powerful person called “police chief” in the group chat.

The documentary portrayed how reporters in charge of the case endured hardships, such as extreme stress, miscarriage, etc., while investigating the issue but kept their faith until the end to bring the truth about the Burning Sun Case to light. There was even a story about the late singer Goo Ha-ra playing the key role in uncovering the identity of “police chief” by persuading her friend Choi Jong-hoon, who was among the perpetrators, to report the case. 

In the end, it turned out that “police chief” was not a fictional figure, but a real police officer named Yoon Kyu-geun. Thanks to this documentary, the public finally got to know about Goo Ha-ra’s contribution to discovering crimes. 

What’s special is that this documentary was produced by BBC, a foreign media outlet, and the way they tell the story of the Burning Sun Scandal, which the majority of people thought they already knew well, feels more real. Although there were a lot of investigative reporters analyzing the incident from various aspects at the time it broke out, this documentary showed real videos and messages exchanged by people involved in the scandal. In fact, it was possible for BBC to bring out the case in a more realistic way because it is a foreign media outlet, which is not restricted by the situation in Korea.

While concerns over sensationalism exist, BBC’s re-examination of the Burning Sun Scandal is considered meaningful as it exposes more explicit realities of the case to the public. In addition, the shocking statement of MD, who worked at Burning Sun Club back then, claiming that there are still a lot of cases like Burning Sun happening in Korea suggests that the crime is still going on and emphasizes the need for further revelations of facts. Moreover, this is also a chance for people to recognize the courage of the late Goo Ha-ra.