Jo Min Ki Commits Suicide and Police End Sexual Harassment Investigation

View Comments

• 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!