Burning Sun gate

Overview

The Burning Sun gate refers collectively to the various crimes and allegations that came to light one after another in 2019 surrounding the club 'Burning Sun,' which was located in the basement of the Le Meridien Seoul hotel in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The matter initially concerned claims that police had handled a case of a customer being assaulted in a biased manner. As the investigation proceeded, however, it led to drug distribution inside the club, collusion between police and the establishment, prostitution brokering and overseas gambling involving Seungri (born Lee Seung-hyun), a member of Big Bang who had been a corporate director of the club, and the circulation of illegally filmed material in a group chat of entertainers.

The case caused great shock in that it exposed the relationships among K-pop stars, entertainment agencies, Gangnam entertainment establishments, and the police. However, many of the allegations first raised were not recognized as fact in investigations and trials, so it is necessary to distinguish between confirmed convictions and allegations.

Origin: Controversy over an assault report

On November 24, 2018, Kim Sang-kyo, who had visited Burning Sun, was assaulted by club staff, and he claimed that the police who arrived instead arrested him as the perpetrator and assaulted him. This claim became widely known through an MBC News Desk report on January 28, 2019, and spread into suspicions of collusion between the club and the Gangnam Police Station with jurisdiction over the area. The club suspended its business on February 17, 2019. The investigation also revealed that the club's representatives had paid money through a former police officer in an attempt to cover up an incident involving the admission of minors.

Kim Sang-kyo himself was also sued for molesting women inside the club and was brought to trial. In November 2022, the first-instance court found him guilty of one of three counts of indecent assault, as well as obstruction of business and defamation, and sentenced him to a prison term suspended for a period. At the time, the club director who had assaulted Kim also received a prison term suspended for a period (English Wikipedia).

Group chat and entertainers

On February 26, 2019, SBS funE reported on KakaoTalk conversations in which Seungri appeared to instruct others to provide sexual entertainment to a group of foreign investors in late 2015. On March 10, police referred Seungri to prosecutors on charges of arranging prostitution, and the following day Seungri announced his retirement from the entertainment industry.

Around the same time, singer Jung Joon-young had left his mobile phone with a repair company, and the conversations on it were filed as a whistleblower report with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. On March 11, it was reported that Jung had repeatedly shared illegally filmed material in a group chat that included Seungri and others. The person called the "police chief" in this chat was identified as Yoon Kyu-geun, a serving police official with the rank of chief superintendent, which led to suspicions of collusion involving senior police officials. Some entertainers were revealed to have participated in the chat and either left their groups or suspended their activities. Reporting by SBS reporter Kang Kyung-yoon and others played a major role in this coverage, and a 2024 BBC documentary reported that the late Goo Hara had helped with the reporting.