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Intrigue

Introducing - Intrigue: Burning Sun

Intrigue

BBC

True Crime, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.64.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The sex scandals that brought down some of the world’s biggest K-pop Stars. A tale of depravity, power and excess - hidden behind a facade of wholesome pop music. In 2019 some of the world’s biggest music stars were found guilty of sharing secretly filmed sex videos, others of rape. Korean heart-throbs, used to being mobbed by adoring female fans, had been videoing themselves committing acts of terrible abuse and sharing them on group chats with each other. When all this came to light, these super-stars wound up in jail, and their global fans were left in shock. For the first time, we give the definitive account of the scandal, how it came to light and the explosive fallout, told by the people who were at the heart of uncovering the story. We explore how the case highlighted an ‘epidemic’ of spy-cam crimes, where women are filmed without their consent walking up metro stairs, in public toilets and during sex. And how this abuse and misogyny has driven a wedge between many men and women, so deep that some believe it’s causing an existential crisis for South Korea. Co-creator, presenter and writer: Chloe Hadjimatheou Location Producer: Lee Hyun Choi Assistant Producer and researcher: Jeong-One Park Translator and researcher: Jinny Yeon Music: Tom Haines at Brain Audio Sound Design: Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio Co-creator and executive producer: Kavita Puri

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:10.8

Imagine if you could get hold of your favourite pop stars' personal mobile phone.

0:17.1

If you could see the private messages they sent to their celebrity friends,

0:22.1

what might you find out?

0:24.8

I saw a little bit of the chat messages and I was like,

0:29.6

wow, they were celebrities actually abusing their power to do some very bad things.

0:37.9

I'm Chloe Hajimahe and you're listening to intrigue from BBC Radio 4.

0:43.6

This is Burning Sun.

0:46.0

The story of how a group of Korean pop stars and their friends were

0:50.2

caught sending each other videos of women that secretly filmed during sex.

0:55.7

Some of whom weren't even awake.

0:58.4

What?

0:59.4

Is she unconscious?

1:00.4

Why did she use some conscious? So what?

1:02.8

Show me all men of the life.

1:04.1

But that being the perfect opportunity for a gangbang,

1:06.6

she had to be unconscious for me to be able to use the flash.

1:11.6

It's the story of the journalists who worked so hard to bring these abusive pop stars down.

1:18.0

The story I was putting out there had this shocking power.

1:23.9

It could destroy the fantasy all in one girl.

1:27.0

An investigation that led to an exclusive nightclub, Burning Sun,

1:31.8

co-owned by one of the K-pop stars,

...

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