Jo Min Ki Commits Suicide and Police End Sexual Harassment Investigation
It’s a quick end for one K-actor accused of sexual harassment as Jo Min Ki committed suicide on Friday March 9th. The actor was found hanging in the basement storage room of an apartment complex by his wife and was already deceased. Jo Min Ki’s prolific and decades long acting career was already over and he was also facing police investigation over the many allegations of sexual harassment by his former university acting class students. He was scheduled to be questioned by police on March 12th but now with his death the sexual harassment investigation has been closed by authorities. This may not be the closure any or all of his victims would have wanted but he confessed to his crimes in a statement released earlier and has paid for it with his life rather than potential incarceration. Jo Min Ki leaves behind a wife and daughters.
An irresponsible man through and through. Now his family has to bear the fruits of his crimes, while mourning for his death at the same time.
Agreed. Unfortunately his victims won’t get justice and now the only ones who will truly suffer are them. Now he’s added his family to that list as well. I hope they don’t become persecuted because of what he did since they share no fault.
Deep condolences to his wife and daughters on their loss. And if any of you diss my post for offering my sympathies to the deceased’s family at this time then all I can say to you is go take a flying razoo into a concrete brick wall. There will be a lot more cases to follow of the accused taking the same course of action but I will always be in support of the innocent family members they leave behind.
I second this.
Case closed??? I hope not. He is just a scapegoat. #MeToo needs to ensure no stones are left unturned. This man’s evil deeds must have been known by the university, and they supported him which means there are probably more men like him. For such a small entertainment world in SK, they sure have lots of these beasts.
Kim Ki Duk is another one of these that needs all his international film awards to be taken back from him.
I believe he has only one daughter and a son who is currently in the military.
The case against him and the evidence needs to be proven beyond a doubt that he was responsoble for these crimes and not just accusation or the people who have maade these claims could be responsible for the death of innocent man and how will they live with that…This whole thing needs to be done properly not just half baked…Case closed? What ever happend to innoncent to proven guilty F… sake.
wasnt it said he confessed to his crime, its not unproven accusations if the guy himself made a statement admitting to everything
He admitted to it. The victims are responsible only for revealing the truth. There is only one person responsible for his death – himself. I feel bad for his family. They didn’t ask for any of this. But I won’t feel bad for him when none of this ever had to happen. He shouldn’t have abused the power he had over his students.
There’s a suicide letter which the agent decided to only release in part. The released version is a vague apology of his ‘wrong doing’, see https://www.soompi.com/2018/03/09/letter-written-jo-min-ki-surfaces-death/?from=seealso
Such cases should not be closed as there’s an “ecosystem” that allows such behaviors to go unchecked. In this case, the university in the first instance.
I agree, the university that enabled him and turned a blind eye to his crimes shouldn’t be let off the hook just because he’s dead. What’s to stop them from hiring another abuser and letting him sexually assault students in the future too?
He confessed to his crime himself though.He got thrown out from his drama, he got thrown out from his agency, He was due for questioning by the police on 12 March but he couldnt face the music so he offed himself.
“Needs to be proven”?
He admitted in his own words that he did everything he was accused of. These aren’t ‘allegations’ any more, they are facts coming to light.
Condolence to his family. Its a double shock of sexual harrassement and suicide.
I pity the victims. They spoke up and now they may feel bad that they had driven him to suicide. I hope that his suicide will not stop the rest from speaking up about the sexual harrassment that they had facced.
I’m usually sympathetic towards suicide and death, but in this case all I have to say is good riddance.Condolences to his family though. Hopefully the victims will have a sense of closure rather than guilt. This vile man does not deserve an iota of consideration, even in his death.
He couldn’t face up to the music so he chose the easy way, F him and predators like him. I read part of his letter and it only was providing excuses (helping his students to stop being uptight) and he only apologized to his daughter again F him.
ikr that letter was probably intended to get sympathy but all it does is show even more clearly how despicable he is. I want to commend the women who stood up against him, it’s not their fault he was a bully, rapist and ultimately coward.
@mangochic – ikr, that letter was probably intended to get sympathy but all it does is show even more clearly how despicable he is. I want to commend the women who stood up against him, it’s not their fault he was a bully, rapist and ultimately coward.
Not only commend the young women students for stepping forward to stand up to complain about him, but commend those young male students for stepping and standing up for their female classmates facing this abuser risking themselves for criticisms, revenge punishment; who actually composed a manual to reach for in how to deal with him every time, their female classmates had a problem with him, so sad since university did nothing in protecting them.
His letter.Smh.i can see why his ex-agency didnt release it.Can you imagine someone starting an apology letter saying:
“he was caught offguard and as time passed, it became difficult for him to bear thats why he became cowardly..thats why he denied and evaded the issue”.
For me, I interpret the letter to mean he never thought what he was doing was wrong and he was sorry he got caught and exposed to the whole world.Thays why he was sorry.I mean if he had a conscience, this shouldnt have caught him by surprise like he said.He could have just embraced “the you reap what you sow”saying and allow the law to accord him due process.
This whole thing is just disappointing.His poor family, the victims..what did they do to deserve this?
That letter makes me, a random stranger, want to vomit, I can’t even imagine what his victims must have felt seeing him so shameless to the very end.
The frightening part is that this is how men like him actually think, they think they didn’t really do anything wrong (but at the same time they hide their rapist tendencies when showing a public image), that they were entitled to behave that way with women and that they’re the true victims for ‘enduring the hate’ after they get caught.
While what he has done is despicable and unpardonable, the proper way is for him to go through the legal process and do his penitence in a prison, rather than to take his life. I feel that this seems to be ingrained in the Korean psyche that whenever someone (especially a public figure) has done something unpardonable, often the only outlet left is to take his/her own life. Look at the example of one of the ex presidents of Korean who threw himself down a cliff after being accused of bribery. There is a strong culture of shame in Korea and in Japan that exerts heavy pressure on those perceived to have deviated, transgressed or failed, hence the high suicide rate in both countries. While I am not trying to exonerate him, I feel even the despicable should have recourse to repentance and rehabilitation.
No, this shameless piece of trash left a letter with excuses for his sexual harassment like ‘I was just trying to get them to relax outside the classroom’ (paraphrasing) and it looks like he was unable to even commit to words on paper the exact nature of what he did. Brave enough to do it, but too cowardly to name it or face the consequences for it.
I’m sorry for his family for having to find out their husband and father was such a monster, but true justice isn’t going to be served by the accused escaping even indictment because he killed himself. On the other hand he was a pure waste of space and trash so part of me is glad he’s gone, but I hope the victims don’t feel any blame for this, it
…it wasn’t their fault that he felt the need to do it, it’s his own fault for being a sex criminal and a coward. Good riddance!
the metoo movement should go on unabated to remove the rot in Korean entertainment,as for Jo min ki he is an extremely selfish guy so no sympathy for him
it is not the victims nor the public fault so nobody should blame themselves nevertheless.
just had a thought, if he didn’t commit suicide or if any of his victims stepped forward to complain about him, how long would he have let it continue before these young girls put an end to it by complaining to the authorities which they had no choice. Didn’t look as if he was going to stop doing what he was getting away with and if not these young college female students, who else did he manage to get away with and they had no recourse left for them to complain about him, but just drop it altogether out of frustration only for him to continue but now as a respectable professor at a university?
Wow, this was like watching some sort of drama unfold. It was so ugly. He was a coward to not be able to face the law in life thinking death will take away the pain but really everyone will remember what a monster he is and what he inflicted in his victims. I’m disappointed he took this route, these victims needed to hear what he put them through because it’s as if he got away by committing this act.
Actually quite impressed with the momentum the MeToo movement has reached in Korea. The women are commendable for their courage to go public and not worry about possible shaming to themselves. We are talking about a Confucian, heavily patriarchal society where the blame tends to be more on the female victims than the male perpetrators. Some kudos must be given to the way Korean media and institutions have positively responded to the movement and given the sack to these extremely prestigious men. One of the men accused is a poet of high prestige and power, sort of like Korea’s hope for a Nobel literature laureate, and he has now got his poems scrapped from Korean school textbooks and his name deleted from literary histories (probably not the best way to deal with his crime in my opinion). If we look at neighbouring Confucian/East Asian countries, we might get a better idea. China responded to the MeToo movement by saying in an official editorial that such things would not happen in China because China had superior cultural values. A Japanese activist says that it is not because such things do not happen in Japan but because women are mostly silenced.
agree wholeheartedly with you Eva.
the situation in SK is much better compared to much asian countries, not a cover up by even the media and govt.
Are you suggesting other countries such as Hong Kong are covering up #MeToo movement there?
There were reports about how China encouraged the reporting of the #metoo stories at first but then started to shut it down and suppress the news when people within the country started reporting sexual harassment in universities etc in large numbers.
This is so sad for everyone involved.
I feel sorry for his family and his victims, who will never get closure to this case. He was a coward till the end. I hope the victims don’t feel guilty about his death because the only one who is guilty to his death is himself.
It’s not easy to say it, because I could not approve it, but he did the right thing IF I only think of his family. The case is now closed and they don’t have to avoid each other anymore either. Facing a father/husband after such a news is hurtful. A quick end is better then a long agony. It’s still so sad and won’t be easy to go on so I very much feel for his family.
Some people here don’t have conscience. You all don’t know the truth and judging dead person based on unverified letter whether it true or even translated correct is utterly disgusting. It is as worst as JMK offenses if he was indeed guilty.
The man is dead and let him rest in peace or at least respect the family. Before you know it, your uncles, your father and relatives may have committed similar offences as the late JMK without their knowledge. Look around within your family.
What a judgmental world we live in and too many keyboard warriors that have lost the essence of humanity. And, I wonder what’s the age bracket of the commenters here. Geez
PS. I don’t condone the bad act but judging someone without solid proof, much less without sufficient knowledge is worst than anything.
if he wanted to defend for himself, he wouldn’t choose to commit suicide… just think about it. Do you really think he cares? I feel sorry for his family, not him, he chose his own destiny! I hope you know the truth if you can go ask him directly…
If he was innocent why didn’t he leave it to the legal system to defend his name??? There is a problem with their justice system if he had so many accusers and no hard evidence.
He ADMITTED FROM HIS OWN MOUTH he was guilty of everything he was accused of. What more do you need for ‘verification’? Video tape of his attempt to rape a woman?
You are insane to even dare to compare the well deserved hate this piece of shit is getting, to the crimes he committed for almost a decade in cold blood. What conscience do you have, to even be saying such a thing?
And I tell you this much, if any of my male relatives ever turned out to be someone like this, they will be out of my life.
why are you questioning the age bracket of the commentators just because they do not symphathise with this man and the action he has taken?Does his death take away the stench of what he did?Or maybe thats why he did it?So that people can question the credibility of his victims’case and make people feel sorry for him?Do you realise you are disrespecting the victims with what you have written.Or how is saying he should have faced the law, not committing suicide disrespecting him or his family?I havent seen anyone dragging his family or condemning them..in fact they are also victims and many are symphathising with the wife and children.If you are condemning people for not shutting up because their father, uncle or relative could be committing the same act.I could ask you the flip question?if your mother, sister,daughter, or someone in your community was a victim, would you be writing the same thing?
He was not an ordinary citizen but a PUBLIC influential figure in a prestigious position of trust.An actor and professor.This is why the anger and disgust is multiplied because of the way things have turned out.
“Judging someone without solid proof much less sufficient knowledge” have you actually followed everything from the beginning or you only read bits of what happened?If you read everything and still came to this conclusion then I dont know what to say to you.
There have been false/unproven allegations, Keyboard warriors going overboard but this in my opinion is not one of those cases.
You guys are pathetic. He paid his crimes with his life, isn’t that enough yet? He was humilated, he lost his career, he lost everyone’s respect including his family’s trust on him, and now his life. He apologized to his victims and who are you people, not even related to him or the victims, just reading kgossips here, to keep saying shit about a dead person. Move on, you aint gonna get any if you continue bashing someone who already passed away. I won’t say rest in peace for him either, but I’d hope for his family to gradually get over this mess and heal in time.
No, it’s not enough. We’re not moving on, because systematic sexual abuse against women and the system that constantly sweeps it under the rug is still in place. It’s you who’s pathetic trying to gag the discussion.
South Korea and the rest of Asia plus many more countries are societies where women are treated as second class citizens. The discussion here is good to read but change will only happen from within each society. Anger has no place in that change because it is received with anger. Too much work to do to show men we are worthy of respect and equality. Do not minimize another person’s opinion because you do not agree. Be intelligent and enjoy the debate.