Now that the Kim Hyun Joong domestic violence allegations are entering into the police sorting through statements and evidence phase, the news will likely ebb until its time for the police to make a recommendation to the prosecutor’s office and/or there is a settlement and the matter is resolved that way. This post will serve as a suitable capper for the whole messy saga since it erupted two weeks ago and understandably garnered a lot of attention. I’ve had a soft spot for Kim Hyun Joong since Playful Kiss and even if his acting has or hasn’t improved, he was always my cool Baek Seung Jo. Having assault allegations lobbed against him was very disappointing for me, especially since his agency Keyeast released a statement that admitted to one physical fight while trying to downplay or unconvincingly refute the other claims raised by the victim. Once is enough when it comes to violence and abuse.
Kim Hyun Joong’s police interview on the evening of September 2nd didn’t last all night as the police thought it might, instead lasting for four hours and ending after 1 am in the morning. The media was still stationed outside waiting for him to leave and as he departed he shared a simple statement with the media apologizing and promising to cooperate fully with the investigation. The police have announced that Kim Hyun Joong admitted to one of the charges against him, the fight in May which resulted in the victim’s bruises that required two weeks to heal, but denied that the abuse was habitual which was another charge. He also denied the fight in July which the victim claimed resulted in a crack rib, admitting that the couple fooled around which led to the fracture but denied he was violent then nor was he even aware that she was injured. The police indicate that Kim Hyun Joong’s interview did not change from the outline of the initial statement released by Keyeast. Now the case goes into the deliberation phase to sort through the conflicting evidence.
Taking the one admitted allegation that he injured his then girlfriend “A” in a verbal fight that escalated into physical, reportedly over breaking up, that’s enough for me to ask that Kim Hyun Joong take anger management classes, get extensive probation if not jail time (for a first time offender he probably won’t get jail), and really reflect on why a person has any excuse for losing one’s temper to the degree of expressing it through physical violence. I’m disappointed if his fans continue to harp on what the victim did or didn’t do in the fight in question, or what her motives are for pressing charges now. That doesn’t matter because there only excuse for physical violence is to defend from bodily harm, and seeing that he’s an extremely muscular and fight male specimen, I find it hard to believe that even if he was trying to neutralize her first physical aggression that it didn’t end with one blow to stop her if she got physical first but continued on with multiple strikes as if she was on some major uppers and was coming at him over and over again.
That last pic is giving me the creeps….
Agreed with Gina, last pic is creepy. Angel face gone.
This is the real him!!!!!!
Thank yo for your article. I think justice will be bought. Actually it seemed like it already is. Nothing will happen…..
This is disgusting, loss of words..
A male friend accidentally pressed my hand while helping me to move stuff and a bruise appeared for almost a week. It’s not uncommon to have bruises even when we hit someone as perpetrators. Likely they had a big fight and even when a guy was defending himself, he can accidentally inflict some pain and bruises upon a female.
so why is it that only she was bruised and he wasn’t ???
She had to stay in the hospital for several Weeks because of her injuries: one stay was two weeks and the other was 6 weeks. I highly doubt she had to stay in the hospital because of accidental
Bruises she inquired being the aggressor. Additionally dispatch provided texts in which he basically said he had given her these injuries. I truly hope you aren’t trying to make light of this horrible situation by saying it was her fault.
Dont live under illusion. Face the fact. I doubt your friend accidentally give you as much bruise as this young girl was subjected to. It was all over her body.
Even if they had a big fight, and she bruises like a peach, he should have walked away. And that stuff about the rib fracture? When you break a rib, you know about it.
One and done, is my motto for domestic violence. Good on her for reporting him – what a disgusting creep.
about the rib fracture – not always. when i had a little fracture on the rib from getting hit by a bicycle [yeah, i know, pretty lame] it started to hurt almost two days later – until then i had no idea that i’ve broken my rib. the second time i’ve broken a rib it hurted like hell the minute it broke – beacuse it was more severe. and guess what i’ve been doing back then – fooling around with my bro 😀 i fell on the stairs and it just happened. so it is possible to broke a rib like that.
however, i don’t believe that’s the case with khj. in my mind he’s already gulity since he used force on her at least once – and i don’t believe in violence, neither between men and women nor between people of the same sex. no one has right to hit another person. i highly doubt he was attacked by her and had to defend himself. guy is just an asshole.
You will know if the bruising is accidental or if it is a result of holding someone off based on where the bruises are.
My brother and his wife got into an argument, the wife got physical (she started punching him in anger.) My brother tried to walk away but she followed him and kept punching his back. My brother faced her again to hold her off by holding on to her arms.She also bruises easily as well. She tried to accuse him of DV, but her bruises are just in her arms when my brother held her off. Therefore, her DV charge didn’t progress.
KHJ’s ex-gf has bruises in different parts of her body. The bruising on her forearm looked like she was repeatedly punched on that area, not just a bruise resulting from holding her off.
there is speculation that glam’s dahee can possibly get up to 5 years in prison for blackmailing. i’ll be super piss if kim hyun joong get less jail time than her.
Wtf?!!!? So stupid. I think there is underlying sexism in their justice system if she gets more time than he does. I actually wouldn’t even be surprised if he gets no time at all. It’s horrible
KHJ will not get jail time at all. Justice can be bought!
I will be very surprised if he gets prosecuted at all.
Why not?
because he is a celebrity and rich
…and male
I think you may be right! Hope she has a very good lawyer
Totally Totally over him he creeps me out. Very sad world if he gets no time in jail it promotes violence. He is one sick boy!
Same with me. He totally gives me the creeps now. I shudder when I see his pictures. I deleted all his music from my harddrive and I will never watch any of his dramas now.
Oh sadness any action of violence against women should not be tolerated dont who does it
So he admits to one
What ever
Had a fight with my brother he just held me off
Men are stronger
So she walked into a wall then
Baek SeoungJo. Why
Such a creep! I hope he pays but it seems like justice will be bought since he is rich and has a powerful agency behind him. I don’t see him admitting he has a problem so I’m positively sure this incident will repeats itself. I have zero respect for him and other women beaters.
My thoughts and prayers are with A and I hope she gets the help she needs to get through this.
I really loved him in We Got Married. I would have never predicted that the passive little groom had this side to him. He was terrified of dragonflies for heaven’s sake. I will wait it out and keep an open mind until a verdict is reached. But seriously though, the evidence so far seems pretty damning.
Whatever A’s intentions be, she has done right in reporting the abuse to the police and getting out of this toxic relationship alive. Hope she will never be identified, forget this nightmare and move on to better things in the future. If the South Korea’s judicial system decides to let him off with a slap on the wrist, too bad, reality sucks, but at least people now know he’s got a monster streak in him, so whoever decides to shack up with him in future, go in with eyes wide open and know what you’re signing up for!
KHJ is sooooo not getting jail time.
Ryu Shi Won was just convicted of threatening and assaulting his wife by punching her multiple times in the face and all he got was a monetary fine. This isn’t an allegation, it’s an ongoing case that just got handed down a CONVICTION and turns out to be just a slap on the wrist.
http://www.soompi.com/2014/09/03/ryu-si-won-found-guilty-of-assaulting-and-threatening-wife-fined-7-million-won/
Sucks to be a woman in SK under skewed penal laws.
What craps?!?!?!
Just fine for beating up a woman??!?! What the hellllllllll
I was shock by that too. I dont think he will get jail time too. Just a trip to the Army and after… who knows. In any case, he has damaged his own career. Surrounded by fans who still cannot let go of the illusion they love and adore.
And around the same time, the woman who blackmailed the cheating douche LBH got hauled off with her hands tied in ropes and faces years in jail. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.
I agree, it is shocking why the girl is handcuffed but KHJ is just there for 4 hours and gone. Even after admitting to one charge? What is wrong with the legal system?
no justice? So sad to know that
Holly shit!! That’s crazy!!
Well, SK is still quite a patriarchal society in general, so I guess women tend to be at the losing end in most aspects, unless they hail from a rich and powerful background with the right connections and influence. Justice? Pffttt… seems like only money talks. Where is Lee Min Ho (City Hunter) when we need him to dish out satisfying justice?
He and KHJ was best friends in Boys over Flowers. Not such he will exercise City Hunter now.
I have not heard how these cases are discussed in the So. Korean media, but I hope feminists in that country are using these events to change what is acceptable in their country. I read an article that said the divorce rate in So. Korea has increased because women do not want to stay in abusive marriages. I pray all involved in these incidents can use them for their personal growth.
He faced the media without a single morsel of repentance. he obviously don’t feel sorry for it. If justice cannot be dealt on him, I hope heaven does its job. Karma bites..
Yeah, what goes around comes around. In an ideal world, his fans would stop supporting him and his career would have been over by now.
I understand they weren’t going to get a confession out of him, but surely there is enough other evidence to refute that it was only one occurrence, I hope.
If she reported the incidents to the police and has photos, they could at leasts charge him of those crimes. Even if he pays to settle, at the very least, I’d expect the police to call bullshit. It is such a high profile case, do they really want women to stop reporting abuse to them?
totally agree with you guys and koala on this. no single excuse justifies or makes violence against women okay. just all too wrong. at least his true colors came out and she came forward.
Its sucks to lives in South Korea as a women. Where is justice!
In kdrama land, everything look so beautiful but in the true world it’s ugly.
No one here is condoning abuse. Even threats must be reported. Whatever I said about accidents remained so. Many here are expressing that men can get away with lots of stuff in patriarchal society. It’s true esp. in Asian culture. Since when women are treated well? There is always a double standard.
Can anyone read Korean? There’s a commenter claiming that this article says that the evidence submitted against him is not valid. “the police said there wasn’t any evidence to sustain the accusation besides her own statement”. Is this true? If it is, what did they mean?
http://m.news.naver.com/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=106&oid=108&aid=0002334802
Also, was this article before or after the KHJ interrogation?
Lastly, hope that Koala can give me some input here:)
Is it unusual for more evidence to be submitted at a later date rather than all-in at the start when the police report is made? To me it doesn’t seem that it’d be weird because I would think that it would give the prosecution/defense (whichever submits the evidence) an advantage in court because the public/other party was unaware of the evidence previously and can’t prepare a response. Not sure if this is accurate though!
I read some stuff like bruising resulted from them playing with each other or something and my reaction was, “Holy crap, are they into BDSM or something??”
I was just watching BOF reruns for like three weeks now. So Ji Hoo did what??!
What a disappointment,he is so polite in dramas.but the real KHJ is a woman beater.