Aside from Korean citizens, celebrities including K-pop idols also expressed their anger and fear about one of the largest sexual exploitation cases in the country, which is the "Nth Room" in Telegram.
The chatroom operated sexual trafficking, such as selling pornography videos involving young victims. It is reported that around 260,000 Koreans men were involved in the sexual assault and exploitation, over female minors who were used as sex slaves.
According to reports, the suspects Cho and other men, forced and blackmailed these young girls through promises, such as giving them jobs. The suspects stole their private information as well to threaten them, leading these young girls to record themselves while doing inappropriate contents.
On March 20, the perpetrator together with his accomplices, was arrested, while four of them were already in prison.
Upon reports, netizens can't help themselves but become enraged, demanding the government and police to reveal the identities of the suspects. On Twitter even, the terms "Nth Room" and all related to it trended for hours, with tons of online users expressing their disgust at the suspects' illicit acts.
A petition was started and Korean celebrities did not hesitate to join the move. They also shared their thoughts through their social media accounts.
Girl's Day's Hyeri wrote, "I am frightened. I really hope that there will be strong punishment [to the suspects].", and captured the title of the petition, 'I want to disclose all of the Nth rooms subscribers."
Hyeri's co-member Sojin also expressed her disbelief about the controversy and posted, "How can the world become like this?"
Moreover, EXID's LE also wrote a copy of the petition and uploaded it with a caption, "This makes sense. I'm so mad. It only takes a few minutes to sign, so go and join the petition."
In addition to this, VIXX's Ravi also joined the petition, and claimed, "I don't want people around me that I love to live in such a scary world."
Se So Neon's Hwang So Yoon then vented out his rage to the government and police through her SNS, wherein she talked about how hegemonic society and people are after the higher-ups covered the faces of the suspects immediately instead of revealing their identity or showing their faces to the press and media.
She quoted, "Make sure to look it up [the Nth Chatroom], and see how disgusting and violent this society is."
The chatroom was not only a platform of sexual exploitation but also shows violence against women and children, which lasted for almost two years, starting from 2018 until exposure this 2020.
Surprisingly, the mastermind behind this case was not even that old but is only in his 20s. According to reports, some of the criminals were also minors, which is why their identities are also being protected.
However, 2 million people already signed the petition, including these Korean artists. The petition demands to reveal the identities of the 260,000 men involved for the awareness of everyone.
It was decided by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on March 22 to reveal the identity of the suspects on March 24.
