Yoochun appears in the ward office of Seoul's Gangnam district to continue his work as a public service agent. [Photo by Park Young-wook = pyw06@]
By Park Sae-jin
A young woman dropped sexual assault suit against Yoochun Wednesday, retracting her original claims that she was raped in a bathroom. Whatsoever, the K-pop idol made no response, but his career is now in crisis.
Although the suit was dropped, investigators are fiddling with the case that sparked a fuss among K-pop fans and the talk of the town. If they find evidence related to a sexual assault, the singer-actor could face criminal charges and a jail term that could lead to the termination of Yoochun's career as a popular K-pop artist.
A cry for mercy is gaining strength among devoted fans. But many critics say Yoochun's celebrity life is probably over, at least for a few years, in view of similar cases in the past that involved accusations of sexual assault on celebrities.
Even if he is found to be innocent, it will not be easy for the singer to clear a probably insurmountable obstacle -- cold public eyes at home.
Any kind of sexual assault is one of the most hated crimes in South Korea where many people apply stricter ethics to public figures and tend to take drunk driving, drug abuse, and hit-and-run traffic accidents by celebrities lighter than sex-related crimes. In many cases, it takes more than a few years to get a positive public response to such criminal activities.
There were similar cases like Yoochun's throughout the Korean entertainment history. The most notorious one was a sexual assault suit involving Joo Byung-jin, a former comedian-turned-entrepreneur who was formally arrested in 2000 on sexual assault charges.
At that time, a 25-year-old college student claimed that she was attacked by Joo inside his car parked at a hotel parking lot. Joo argued he had sexual relations out of mutual consent, and that the bruises he inflicted upon the woman came from a brawl over whether to go for another drink. But a court refused to listen to his excuse and handed down a suspended jail term.
After a two-year court battle, an appeals court finally ruled in favor of the comedian and dropped the case while the woman was sentenced to six months in prison for making false testimonies.
Already having been disgraced, Joo could not restore his reputation. South Koreans marked him with a scarlet letter that sent him kicked out the stage for many years. Though he returned as a TV show MC in 2011, Joo failed to get public attention and his show came to an early shutdown.
In March 2013, an actress-in-training filed a sexual assault suit against Park Si-hoo, a prominent actor who had appeared in many hit dramas and was a mainstream artist leading "Hallyu," the K-pop wave. She argued that she was sexually assaulted while she was suffering from a blackout caused by heavy drinking. The actor, however, said the two had spontaneous sexual relations.
As the high-profile case triggered rampant speculation and public interest, the two dropped their suit against each other. Thereafter, Park could not appear in any TV shows or dramas at home. And he later moved to China to successfully debut in a few dramas and movies there.
Park finally returned to South Korea's home cable drama, "Village Heroes", this year, acting as an ex-intelligence agent, but the drama recorded a low average viewership rating of one percent.
Aju News Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
