CASE THREE / THE MOLKA KAKAOTALK CASE
JUNG
JOONYOUNG.
정준영
Former singer and television personality Jung Joon-young was the central figure in the illegal-filming and KakaoTalk distribution case that became public in March 2019. The recovered evidence ultimately exposed years of secretly recorded sexual material as well as separate sexual-assault allegations involving members of the same social circle.
ILLEGAL FILMING • DISTRIBUTION • KAKAOTALK • SEXUAL ASSAULT • CRIMINAL CONVICTION
11
DISTRIBUTION INSTANCES
5
GROUP CHATS
3
PRIVATE CHATS
14
RECIPIENTS
CENTRAL FIGURE
THE MOLKA
CASE.
Jung Joon-young was a singer, television personality, and former vocalist of the band Drug Restaurant. In March 2019, Korean media reported that Jung had secretly filmed sexual encounters with women and distributed the recordings through private KakaoTalk conversations.
Although the case became publicly intertwined with the wider Burning Sun scandal, most of the recovered recordings and conversations concerned conduct from 2015 and 2016 — years before the Burning Sun nightclub opened in 2018.
AUGUST — OCTOBER 2016
THE FIRST
INVESTIGATION.
Three years before the 2019 scandal, Jung’s then-girlfriend reported him to police in August 2016, alleging that he had filmed her body without her consent during a sexual encounter.
Jung acknowledged that the recording had existed but maintained that he believed it had been consensual and that he had since deleted it. His former girlfriend later withdrew her complaint and indicated that she did not want him punished.
Police nevertheless believed Jung’s conduct could have been illegal and forwarded the case to prosecutors with a recommendation for indictment.
Prosecutors ultimately declined to indict Jung in October 2016, concluding that the available evidence did not establish that he had recorded the woman clearly against her wishes.
WHAT POLICE FOUND IN 2019
A DOCUMENTED
FAILURE.
The handling of the 2016 investigation came under renewed scrutiny after Jung’s crimes became public in 2019.
Police had requested the phone believed to contain the disputed recording, but Jung’s side said the device had been sent to a private digital-forensics company. During the examination, the officer handling Jung’s case contacted the company and asked whether it could provide written confirmation stating that the phone’s data could not be recovered.
The company refused. Jung’s attorney subsequently submitted information stating that the phone had been lost and that its data could not be restored.
THE PHONE HAD
NOT DISAPPEARED.
According to the later police investigation, Jung’s attorney had kept the device at his office.
Police concluded that the officer had suggested handling the phone as though Jung had lost it rather than acknowledging that it had been submitted for private forensic analysis. The officer was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of dereliction of duty and creating and using false official documents. Jung’s attorney was also referred on allegations including complicity in dereliction of duty and concealment of evidence.
Investigators noted that a sexual-violence investigation would ordinarily take roughly three to four months. Jung’s case had been sent to prosecutors only 17 days after the complaint was filed. Police also acknowledged that investigators had failed to properly examine whether Jung had distributed illegally recorded material.
NOVEMBER 2018 — FEBRUARY 2019
A SECOND
INVESTIGATION.
The failed 2016 investigation was not the last opportunity authorities had to investigate Jung before the scandal became public.
In November 2018, Seoul police received another tip alleging that Jung had secretly filmed a sexual encounter and that evidence could be located at the same digital-forensics company connected to the earlier case.
Police sought a search-and-seizure warrant. Prosecutors rejected the first request because the alleged victim had not been identified.
Police then questioned a representative of the company and confirmed that Jung-related videos were stored on a USB device. The company declined to provide the USB voluntarily, and police sought another warrant.
That request was also rejected. Without obtaining the suspected material, police sent the case to prosecutors in February 2019 with a recommendation not to indict. Within weeks, Jung would be investigated for illegal filming for a third time.
MARCH — APRIL 2019
THE CASE
BECOMES PUBLIC.
A DIFFERENT POSITION FROM 2016
JUNG
ADMITS IT.
Jung was overseas filming a television program when the allegations became public. He returned to South Korea on March 12, 2019.
On March 13, he issued a statement acknowledging that he had filmed women without their consent and distributed the material through online conversations. He announced that he would stop his entertainment activities and cooperate with investigators.
Jung was arrested on March 21 on suspicion of illegally filming and distributing sexual material.
Prosecutors indicted him on April 16 while he remained in detention. Investigators had identified 11 instances in which Jung distributed illegally recorded sexual material between 2015 and 2016.
COURT RECORD
NOT ONE
GROUP CHAT.
One of the most persistent simplifications of the scandal is the idea that Jung distributed illegal recordings through one permanent KakaoTalk room containing everyone associated with the case.
According to reporting based on the first-instance judgment, Jung distributed photos and videos he had recorded through five separate group chats and three one-to-one conversations, reaching 14 people in total.
The membership changed from conversation to conversation. Some individuals received material privately, while others appeared in different combinations of group chats.
No single fixed group received every recording.
Early police reporting described a broader collection of 23 chatrooms involving 16 participants. Those investigative figures should not be confused with the narrower court-established record concerning Jung’s charged and proven acts of distribution.
2015 — 2016
FILMED.
SHARED.
DISTRIBUTED.
Jung secretly recorded sexual material involving women and distributed those recordings through multiple private KakaoTalk conversations.
The criminal case ultimately established 11 instances of distribution. Reporting based on the judgment showed that the material had been sent across five group chats and three private conversations to 14 recipients.
This distinction matters. “The Jung Joon-young group chat” is useful shorthand for a network of overlapping conversations, but it should not be interpreted as one permanent room in which the same people witnessed every message, recording, or crime.
A SEPARATE CRIMINAL CASE
THE 2016
SEXUAL ASSAULTS.
The sexual-assault prosecution was related to evidence uncovered through the KakaoTalk investigation, but it was not the same criminal case as Jung’s illegal-filming charges.
As investigators examined the recovered conversations and related evidence, separate allegations emerged concerning incidents in Hongcheon in January 2016 and Daegu in March 2016 involving women prosecutors alleged were too intoxicated to resist.
Five men were ultimately tried together: Jung Joon-young, Choi Jong-hoon, Kim, Kwon, and former entertainment-company employee Heo. The specific allegations and degree of participation differed between defendants and between incidents.
Jung acknowledged during trial that sexual activity had occurred but denied that he and the other defendants had planned or committed rape. His defense argued that the encounter had been consensual and that the woman had not been incapable of resistance.
The court ultimately found the victims’ testimony credible and convicted Jung and Choi in connection with sexual assaults against intoxicated women.
CASE ONE
MOLKA CASE
Secret filming and distribution of sexual photographs and videos through KakaoTalk and other private conversations.
CASE TWO
SEXUAL-ASSAULT CASE
Separate allegations concerning sexual assaults against intoxicated women during incidents in Hongcheon and Daegu in 2016.
In June 2019, the court combined Jung’s illegal-filming proceeding with the sexual-assault case, allowing both categories of allegations to be tried in the same proceeding.
NOVEMBER 29, 2019
FIRST-INSTANCE
CONVICTION.
On November 29, 2019, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Jung and sentenced him to six years in prison.
Importantly, the six-year sentence was not punishment for the KakaoTalk illegal-filming case alone. By that point, the illegal-filming proceeding and the separate sexual-assault prosecution had been combined. The sentence therefore reflected both categories of offenses.
FINAL PRISON SENTENCE
5
YEARS
IN PRISON.
APPEAL & SUPREME COURT
SIX YEARS
BECAME FIVE.
On May 12, 2020, the Seoul High Court reduced Jung’s sentence from six years to five.
The appellate court stated that Jung’s detailed statements concerning the cases and what it considered sincere repentance were taken into account. Unlike Choi Jong-hoon, however, Jung had not submitted a compensation agreement with the victims.
Jung appealed again, but on September 24, 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the five-year sentence.
MAY 2021
THE 2016 VICTIM
SPEAKS AGAIN.
In May 2021, five years after she first reported Jung, his former girlfriend publicly discussed why she had withdrawn her complaint and later cooperated with Jung’s defense.
She said she had been overwhelmed by becoming the focus of a celebrity sex-crime case, feared a countersuit and prolonged legal fight, and suffered severe harassment after details of the case became public.
She filed a Blue House National Petition calling for stronger protections for sexual-crime victims, including protection from secondary victimization, safeguards for victims’ personal information during civil litigation, and restrictions on comment sections attached to sexual-crime reporting.
At the time, a Blue House petition required 200,000 signatures within 30 days to trigger an official government response. Despite press coverage and public support from lawmaker Ryu Ho-jeong, the petition remained far below that threshold.
SBS subsequently apologized for inaccurate and unnecessary statements its reporters had made about the victim and removed the offending video.
MARCH 19, 2024
RELEASED
FROM PRISON.
Jung completed his prison sentence and was released from Mokpo Prison on the morning of March 19, 2024.
AFTER PRISON
SIGHTINGS
IN FRANCE.
Several months after his release, Jung was reported to have been seen in Lyon, France. Later reporting also placed him in Paris.
A person who said they encountered Jung in Lyon reported that he introduced himself as “Jun,” described himself as a famous Korean singer, and said that he planned to open a Korean restaurant in Lyon.
IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
Contemporary reporting supports that Jung was seen in France and that he reportedly said he planned to open a restaurant. It does not establish that he actually opened or currently operates a Korean restaurant in Lyon.
DOCUMENTS / REPORTING / COURT COVERAGE
SOURCES.
Page Last Updated:
SEP 14, 2026 5:52 PM