"Strong suspicion of sex trafficking" A lawyer specializing in sex crimes is also shocked, and two things to note in the "Choi Min-hwan transcript."

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]
□ Broadcast Date: October 30, 2024 (Tue)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Lawyer Lee Go-eun

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): Drummer Choi Min-hwan of FT Island, a famous idol band, has been suspended due to the controversy over his personal life revealed by his divorced ex-wife. The core of the controversy is prostitution. According to the released transcript, Choi Min-hwan asked for a motel and said he would send the money via Telegram. I'm asking for a reservation for a bar, and I'm asking you to call my lady. Police are also investigating Choi Min-hwan's alleged access to prostitution businesses, and they are also investigating allegations of forced harassment against his ex-wife. Let's talk with a lawyer specializing in sex crimes to see if actual punishment is possible for prostitution allegations and forced harassment between couples. I'll connect you to lawyer Lee Go-eun. Hello, lawyer.

◇ Lawyer Lee Go-eun (hereinafter referred to as Lee Go-eun): Yes, hello, I'm lawyer Lee Go-eun.

◆Park Gui-bin: Yes, the released transcript was quite shocking to me. What part did you listen to carefully?

◇ Lee Go-eun: I actually thought it was a little shocking in many ways. I thought I should pay attention to two things. First, Choi Min-hwan's counterpart was the head of a certain business, not just asking a woman or a certain business to make a reservation, but asking for help with the reservation of a nearby accommodation. I thought we should pay attention to the parts where we ask the head of the department what kind of motel it would be like to be a hotel or whether such accommodation can make a reservation. Second, I was shocked that Choi Min-hwan went on vacation and refused even though the head of the business told me to spend time with my family and asked me to reserve a business, regardless of the law, if this was the right attitude.

◆Park Gui-bin: I heard two things with particular attention, why should I pay attention to the first one when you asked me to help you book a property?

◇ Igoeun: Because. In fact, in the case of entertainment establishments, it is now legal for this receptionist to hire a receptionist. We can't say that it's all illegal just because this receptionist comes out of that so-called Danran restaurant. Therefore, there must be some sex, especially exchange of money, or some sexual intercourse, so that's the case with many cases of prostitution at a hotel after a bar rather than a bar, so we need to pay attention to that part because asking the manager to leave a certain business and reserve a motel or lodging can be a circumstantial evidence that can imply prostitution. That's what I thought.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see. In the actual transcript, there are also conversations that seem to have been exchanged for money. "Please tell us about your Telegram". Yes, then I did prostitution with just this transcript. Is it even enough to admit the allegations?

◇ Lee Go-eun: In fact, prostitution is strongly suspected. Because it's not just 100,000 won or 200,000 won to say that you'll send it through that Telegram. What kind of professional term should I call TC that we're talking about there? There are a lot of such terms, but TC is actually the cost of the hospitality worker pouring drinks for an hour. But there's also talk about the cost of 200,000 won per hour and 300,000 won per hour. But the amount of money you say you'll send via Telegram is more than 2 million won. Then I suspect that's simply the cost of any hospitality that a hospitality worker does next to me. However, in order to punish men who buy prostitution sex, it must be considered prostitution, and even if money is given, there is no provision to punish attempted prostitution if there is no actual sexual intercourse and only attempts are made. So I was going to try to buy some sex. I think this transcript alone is not enough to prove whether we can strongly suspect through these things, such as asking for a reservation for a business.

◆Park Gui-bin: So you mean that you need more direct evidence to admit the charges.

◇ Lee Goeun: Yes, that's right. So, if you assume that you bought the sex at that time, there would be a woman who bought the sex. Then the police will track down who the other party is. The investigation would be too easy to admit if the woman confessed like that, for example, if she had a history of receiving the money and what kind of accommodation she had been to for the money. But the woman can be punished, too. Prostitution can't be done by one party. Women have never usually done it because people who bought sex and women who engaged in prostitution can all be punished. There are cases where they say that they only talked in it. So in this case, if the woman or the person who bought the property says that she has never actually been to the property, we track the base station of the mobile phone. So I think the police will probably look into things like where they were at that time and where they were at the accommodation.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see. So it doesn't matter whether there's evidence of actual money coming and going, so for example, isn't there a counterparty right now? The person who called me that brother gave me a witness and I connected him like this. Even if you say this, if Choi Min-hwan claims that we did not actually engage in sexual activity, this means that it is impossible to admit the charges.

◇ Lee Go-eun: That's right. So, if there is an attempted crime, it can be punished as an attempted sex purchase just by paying for going to a hotel, but since there is no punishment regulation of attempted sexual purchase, no matter how right we are to connect, that statement alone is not enough because the head of the department, called the brother, cannot know what happened at the actual accommodation.

◆Park Gui-bin: That's right. I don't think Choi Min-hwan's official position has come out yet. Then, what will happen to the punishment if this allegation of prostitution is proven by actual precedents?

◇ Lee Go-eun: In fact, if you buy sex, the legal sentence itself is relatively weak. So, the person who engaged in prostitution, whether a woman, a man, or a person who bought a sex, faces up to a year in prison, a fine of up to 3 million won, or a fine. It's very weak. So, in practice, in the case of first-time offenders who have made sex purchases, there are many cases of suspension of prosecution. If the number of times goes up like this twice or three times, it is often limited to a light fine.

◆Park Gui-bin: When you mentioned the transcript earlier, don't you think it's a common slang that we only use expressions there? If you listen to the slang used by businesses, there may be words that you don't understand well. When I see that, I think I must have been entering regularly. Then, when the charges of prostitution are later admitted and they go to punishment, does this number of habitual things affect the punishment?

◇ Lee Go-eun: It affects punishment. Actually, what I felt while listening to the transcript is that Choi Min-hwan is very familiar with this culture and entertainment culture. So, if you say that there are many young people in the reservation process, you can't talk about it naturally if you don't have a lot of experience. So if it turns out that you made a sex purchase and it increases the number of times, it will be difficult to get a suspension of prosecution even if it is actually a first-time offender. There is a high possibility that you will be fined or higher.

◆Park Gui-bin: Since you are a lawyer specializing in sex crimes and a former prosecutor, you must have seen many similar cases like this. If this happens, Choi Min-hwan has not come out yet, but what position do you think he will make?

◇ Lee Go-eun: I used to work mainly in the sex crime department while working as a prosecutor. In fact, the stories of men who bought sex are very standardized. So I've never been to a property. I just went to the bar and said, "Why didn't we go to the so-called secondary accommodation and engage in prostitution?" First of all, when the woman who engaged in prostitution said, "What kind of secondary relationship did she have with the man?" That's why it was only an attempt. So there are many cases where people say that, so I think Choi Min-hwan will be in a very difficult situation right now. Regardless of whether it's a crime or not, it's too much to say that I only talked about it so actively because I had a hard time with my image as an idol. I wonder if the public who accepts this will be able to accept it. First of all, I went to an entertainment establishment, but anyway, it's legal for a hospitality worker to come out of an entertainment establishment. I think it's very likely to state that there was no such thing as going to a second round or going to a property.

◆Park Gui-bin: I'm sure you've seen a lot of similar cases like this. In particular, what is unusual about this incident compared to any events you have encountered so far?

◇ Lee Go-eun: It's not an unusual thing, it's similar. Actually, it's sex trafficking. Most people don't do it only once, and it's common to do it multiple times. There's nothing special about it, but what should I say? You have a lot of children. And they are children who do not have a long marriage. It's a bit shocking that I had three children and actually went to many entertainment establishments at a very young age at a time when my marriage was not long. In fact, I think the prostitution case after a general establishment is showing a very normal trend.

◆Park Gui-bin: As you just said, you have children, you have a wife, and you are actually divorced, but isn't this what happened while you were raising your child during your marriage? If the allegation of prostitution is admitted, is that also taken into account?

◇ Lee Go-eun: In what way are you taking it into account?

◆Park Gui-bin: So in general, do you take into account or refer to the prostitution of an unmarried man and a father who is actually married and raising a child?

◇ Lee Go-eun: I don't actually attend criminal cases. Because the reason for punishing prostitution is that some sexual harassment is not actually linked to money. It is the legal protection law that seeks to punish it, so there is no difference in the level of criminal punishment whether or not the person who bought the sex was married. However, if you file for divorce because of this, as you know, the couple has a duty of conciliation, but if it is revealed that they bought sex and engaged in prostitution against the duty of conciliation, it can be a reason attributable to them. It's a very unfavorable part of the divorce proceedings.

◆Park Gui-bin: In order to prove such allegations of prostitution, what will the prosecutor ask about from the police in the future? Do you want to investigate?

◇ Lee Go-eun: Yes, first of all, there is a very high possibility that we will go to the business for seizure and search. Because first of all, you must have gone to the entertainment establishment first. After going there, the investigative agency will see that he met a certain employee and went to the accommodation with him, so first, Choi Min-hwan raided the entertainment establishment he went to and recorded everything on his cell phone that led to prostitution in this way. Because in the case of this prostitution, you have to record it because it's not a structure in which the girl has all the payments, but a structure in which she shares them with the manager. So, if there is evidence of such things, if there is a certain type of prostitution that occurs frequently in the search and seizure of businesses, I think I will check whether Choi Min-hwan has actually paid for such prostitution based on him or on the ledger.

◆Park Gui-bin: The case that Choi Min-hwan is currently investigating is not just this prostitution. He will also be investigated for sexual harassment, but the target is all. So, when I'm with my family, my ex-wife revealed this in a video. If I tell you, Choi Min-hwan put money into the chest of his wife's pajamas or touched major parts of his body. Yeah, so even if this happened between a couple, could sex be established?

◇ Lee Go-eun: For now, it can be established if you ask if rape or forced harassment can be established between a couple. But I simply touched it. Or, sex crimes can be established only when assault or intimidation is used as a means of crime, not just because it is measured. Between the couple, the degree of threat of assault should be a little stronger in the degree of cooperation. Because, for example, when there is a touch between a couple, they can touch it again and again without saying, "I will touch it." The relationship itself is very unlikely that when I touched something, I clearly recognized that the other person was against my will and then proceeded to that behavior. So, even if there was a situation that Yuri talked about, Choi Min-hwan thought this would be permissible between the couple, and it is very difficult to admit the intent of the harassment if you do not know that Yuri would be against it that much and that she looked so pretty in the moment. However, even between a couple, sex crimes are of course established if they use such measures as hitting them, threatening them, or suppressing their defiance even though they say they hate them.

◆Park Gui-bin: Choi Min-hwan and his ex-wife Yul-hee are both idol couples, so they appear on this program a lot and are well known. That's why this incident is more of a hot topic. But the investigation into this case was not an ex-wife, but a third party filed a complaint. The investigation takes place even if the victim does not directly file a complaint.

◇ Lee Go-eun: Of course. So, there's a complaint. In this case, the National Newspaper received a petition saying, "Isn't it necessary to investigate because the petitioner has such evidence?" and the case is not started only when the victim files a complaint, but if there is a third party's complaint, the police station can review the relevant evidence and decide that there is enough benefit to open an investigation.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Yes, I see. Since we talked about sex crimes between the couple, let me ask you this briefly. Choi Dong-seok, an announcer-turned-TV broadcaster, was also investigated due to the sexual assault between the couple. Park Ji-yoon, who was his ex-wife, tried to get scared during the conversation. I tried to rape her. That's what I said. What do you think of this case?

◇ Lee Go-eun: Actually, it's hard to conclude that this can be a sexual assault with just one short sentence. As I said earlier, it is true that a crime can be established if a couple is forced to engage in sexual activity even though they clearly use assault or intimidation to say no. We can tell you that it is unclear whether we can prove it or not with just one line because we do not know exactly how much violence or intimidation we used in that one line. What is reported now is that not only Choi Dong-seok but also his wife are taking a passive attitude in making victim statements, so in fact, the victim's statement is the most important evidence for such sex crimes. However, if the victim does not make a statement, I think it would be difficult to prove any sexual crime charges against Choi Dong-seok simply by such a message.

◆Park Gui-bin: Have you been convicted and sentenced to prison for sexual assault between a couple?

◇ Lee Goeun: Yes, that's right. So, if you look at the cases in which the couple is actually guilty, there are cases in which they are sentenced to prison for rape when they say they really don't like hitting their wives, but they use their fists or feet to force them to judge who they don't like.

◆Park Gui-bin: Let me ask you this briefly. It's the custody part. In the case of Choi Dong-seok and Park Ji-yoon, I know that Park Ji-yoon has custody, and in the case of Choi Min-hwan, Choi Min-hwan has custody. However, in this case, is it possible to affect custody depending on whether the allegation of prostitution is admitted or whether the couple is punished for forced harassment between the couple?

◇ Lee Go-eun: But that Yul-hee said in a media interview or to the media that because of the realistic problem of child custody, Choi Min-hwan agreed to take charge of raising three children. In other words, I think Yul-hee also thought that Choi Min-hwan's parenting is very appropriate considering various aspects economically and in the process of filing a child-rearing divorce or mediation. If Choi Min-hwan's allegations were child abuse, of course, we can seriously consider the change in custody, but it would be difficult to change the custody of the child right away when Yul-hee, his wife, cannot raise a child right now.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. Let's stop here. Until now, I was a lawyer specializing in sex crimes. Thank you.

◇ Lee Goeun: Thank you.