In November 2018, Kim Sang Kyo, a 29-year-old art director, begrudgingly went to Burning Sun for a work-related birthday party. While there, he noticed a girl being dragged nearly unconscious by some sketchy club patrons. Mistake #1? He reported it to the Burning Sun staff. Instead of helping, they beat him up outside. Mistake #2? He called the police to report, investigate and punish. Instead, Kim was charged with assault on women in the club and physical violence outside the club.
Welcome to the club world of Korea.
How does a guy who tried to stop a girl from getting kidnapped and assaulted become the criminal? When you just blew the lid on police corruption and their extra cash in Gangnam, that’s how! After asking for help, Kim Sang Kyo gets beaten by security, captured by police and tied up like a dog at the station. Even after his mother arrived and started filming the atrocities, police officers started to drag and throw her around right in the middle of the station.
Welcome to officers on the take in Korea.
Remember those sus fishermen from the SJM case? Convenient witnesses out of nowhere that seem to have the perfect testimony to destroy the character of the whistleblower? Suddenly MDs and co-owners of the club claim Kim Sang Kyo was ‘getting too close’ to them. And like magic endless CCTV footage to support their claims became available. But none showed anything real. And nothing was ever proven.
Welcome to the technique of stuffing all the sins of the villain into the whistleblower to fool the public into hating their real savior. A favorite technique in Korea.
Nobody knew about his struggle until he launched a petition on the website of the Office of the President of South Korea. Sound familiar to the Son Jung Min case? Even after he drew national and international media attention to his abuse, which left him with broken ribs, he largely had to face the ensuing battles alone.
Welcome to a world where people who conveniently forget about you suddenly want your help when it’s their turn in life to get hit by major abuse. In the meantime, you must suffer and fight alone on their behalf because they just can’t relate and would rather not break their invested belief in this world.
Originally published at https://www.theseoulite.com on September 18, 2021.
