Overview
The Nth Room case is the collective name for a digital sex crime case in which victims were deceived or had their personal information obtained and were then threatened into filming sexually exploitative videos. These videos were circulated among multiple chat rooms or sold for money, all through messaging apps including Telegram. The name "Nth Room" comes from Mun Hyeong-uk, who used the online name "God God," creating multiple rooms from "Room 1" to "Room 8" and posting sexually exploitative material in them. Later, the "Chatroom of Doctor" ("Park-sa Room") run by Jo Ju-bin ("Doctor") expanded the scale by charging entry fees in cryptocurrency. Many of the victims were minors, including middle school students.
According to police announcements as summarized by Wikipedia, the number of participants, including those who possessed or distributed the videos, was estimated at a minimum of 60,000 as of March 2020. In February 2020, a joint civic group committee estimated the number at about 260,000 by simply adding up the participants of some 60 related chat rooms. However, the police viewed the actual number of users as between 10,000 and 30,000 once duplicate accounts were taken into account. The number of victims has not been disclosed precisely in order to prevent secondary harm. The Korea Times reported that Jo Ju-bin threatened 74 victims, including minors.
This article does not cover the details of the harm in order to protect the victims. Among the perpetrators, only those whose identities were officially disclosed by investigative authorities and whose guilt has been confirmed are named.
Coming to light
From early 2019, it gradually became known through some media outlets and internet communities that sexually exploitative material was being traded in secret Telegram chat rooms. In March 2019, a report of harm was filed through a sexual violence counseling center in North Gyeongsang Province, and the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police began an investigation.
The decisive turn came from the reporting team "Chujeokdan Bulkkot," made up of two college students. While preparing for an investigative journalism contest, they discovered in July 2019 a chat room on Telegram where sexual exploitation videos were shared. They carried out undercover reporting and reported it to investigative authorities. That September, they won a prize at the News Communication Promotion Foundation's investigative and in-depth report contest, and the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency launched an investigation based on the materials they provided. The two later revealed their real names as Park Ji-hyun ("Bul," meaning "fire") and Won Eun-ji ("Dan," meaning "group").
In the media, the Electronic Times first ran a planned report in August 2019, and the Hankyoreh special reporting team's serial planned coverage, which began on the front page on November 25, brought the case fully to public attention. Wikipedia notes that as of December 2019, the Hankyoreh was the only major media outlet that had reported on the case. The Kukmin Ilbo also took up the issue with its serial "Nth Room Tracking Report." In September 2019, two operators who had taken over or promoted the Nth Room were arrested.
In January 2020, a National Assembly public petition gathered 100,000 signatures and was referred to the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee. However, on March 3, a subcommittee only made partial revisions to the existing bills, which drew criticism as a "hasty process."
Arrests and disclosure of identities
On March 17, 2020, the police arrested Jo Ju-bin, who had operated as "Doctor," along with his accomplices. Among the accomplices was a social service worker who had worked at a district office or community service center and had obtained victims' personal information. A public petition on the Blue House website calling for the disclosure of "Doctor's" identity, posted on March 18, gathered more than 2.57 million signatures within a week, setting the record for the most signatures at the time. On March 24, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Identity Disclosure Review Committee decided to disclose Jo Ju-bin's name and face under Article 25 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. This was the first case in which the identity of a sex crime suspect was disclosed under this provision.
Mun Hyeong-uk, "God God," who first created the Nth Room, was caught by the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police in May 2020, was detained on May 12, and his identity was disclosed the following day. Others whose identities were also disclosed included Kang Hoon ("Buddha"), a co-operator of the Chatroom of Doctor, and Lee Won-ho ("Lee Gi-ya"), who was serving in the military at the time. The police set up a special investigation headquarters for digital sex crimes and, over roughly nine months until December 31, 2020, arrested 3,575 related persons and detained 245 of them.
Trials
On November 26, 2020, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Jo Ju-bin to 40 years in prison. The court recognized the Chatroom of Doctor as a "criminal organization" under the Criminal Act, and Jo Ju-bin contested this to the end. In the appeal, which was consolidated with a sentence he had received separately for a case of concealing criminal proceeds, his prison term was increased to 42 years. The Supreme Court rejected his final appeal on October 14, 2021, and the sentence became final. Jo Ju-bin was later additionally indicted for crimes against minors.
Mun Hyeong-uk was sentenced by the Daegu District Court on April 8, 2021, to 34 years in prison and 30 years of electronic monitoring. His appeal and final appeal were both rejected, and the sentence became final on November 11, 2021. On the same day, Kang Hoon's 15-year prison sentence also became final, and Lee Won-ho's 12-year sentence became final on October 14, 2021. Not only the operators but also many people who paid to join the chat rooms as paying members were subjected to investigation and trial.
Institutional changes
The case greatly changed the system for punishing digital sex crimes. On April 29, 2020, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, the Criminal Act, and related laws.
- A provision was created punishing mere possession, purchase, storage, or viewing of illegally filmed sexual material with up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won (Article 14, Paragraph 4 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes).
- Article 14-3 was newly established, punishing threats using sexual recordings with at least one year of imprisonment and coercion through such recordings with at least three years of imprisonment.
- The Criminal Act was revised to raise the age threshold for statutory rape of minors from under 13 to under 16 (where the offender is 19 or older), and to punish preparation and conspiracy to commit rape and related crimes.
- The Act on the Protection of Children and Youth from Sexual Abuse was also revised to make it easier to recover criminal proceeds and to define children and youths used in prostitution as "victims."
Then, on May 20, 2020, amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act and the Information and Communications Network Act were passed, imposing on internet service providers above a certain size a duty to take technical and administrative measures to prevent the distribution of illegally filmed material. When filtering of illegally filmed material was introduced on KakaoTalk and others in December 2021, when this provision began to be fully applied, criticism of "private censorship" and constitutional complaints were raised. There were also points made that the measures were of limited effectiveness against Telegram, which keeps its servers overseas. In addition, a system of undercover investigation for digital sex crimes targeting children and youths was introduced.
Impact and evaluation
The Nth Room case raised organized sexual exploitation using anonymous messaging apps and cryptocurrency to the level of a social problem, and it wrote into law the recognition that even "viewing" sexually exploitative material is itself a crime. At the same time, the case left major lessons: it came to light over nearly a year, relying largely on the efforts of some media outlets and citizens, and investigative authorities responded slowly to early reports. The Chujeokdan Bulkkot and the Hankyoreh reporting team received awards including the Amnesty International Journalism Award. Since then, similar crimes using similar methods have continued, and international cooperation with overseas platforms and support for deleting harmful videos remain ongoing challenges.
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