Main content

Burning Sun: Exposing the Secret K-pop Chat Groups

In South Korea K-pop stars have fame, fortune and millions of female fans. But some led a double life, inhabiting a hidden world where videos of women being drugged, raped and humiliated were shared.

In South Korea, K-pop stars have fame, fortune and millions of female fans. But some led a double life, inhabiting a hidden world where videos of women being drugged, raped and humiliated were shared. This film tells the story of the female journalists who took on the task of investigating the secret chat groups of prominent K-pop stars - and paid a high personal price.

‘Molka’ is the Korean term for secretly taking explicit photos or videos without consent. It’s a crime that’s increased elevenfold in the last fifteen years in South Korea. Three friends, all successful K-pop stars, were sharing images in which unconscious women were sexually assaulted. Some of the messages contained evidence that two of the stars, Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon had gang-raped a woman.

Their crimes would never have been discovered had the phone data of Jung Joon-young not been leaked. The information eventually ended up in the hands of Korean journalist Kang Kyung-yoon, who began a painstaking process of verifying thousands hundreds of explicit photos and videos. The scandal also involved a top Gangnam club, Burning Sun, where another of the friends, Big Bang star Seungri, was a DJ and CEO. Women were being drugged inside the nightclub, and sexually abused by men attending the club. Kang and fellow-journalist Park tell the story of their investigation and how they became the targets for exposing the stars.

Release date:

6 months left to watch

59 minutes

Featured in...