For those not familiar Baek Ji-young (Revised Romanization: Ji-yeong)  is a popular singer in Korea. In 2001  her manager posted a video himself having sex with Baek  on a pay-per-view site. The video was then widely  circulated on the Internet  and erupted into  a massive scandal in Korea. It’s fair to say it to date,  the  biggest scandal of its kind in the country.  Korea’s  Edison Chen. Sadly, Baek was persecuted by both the Korean media and public, and her career was derailed. Radio stations removed her songs,  advertisers dropped her — she was widely viewed as a slut.  The sex tape is still in wide circulation. If you do a search on Baek’s name you can find it fairly easily.

My wife is fond of saying that the Baek sex tape took the Korean Internet outside of Seoul. That the country’s broadband network was still in its infancy in 2001, but so many Koreans wanted to see  view the  video  that “everyone” who wasn’t already hooked up, became so in short order.

Well, the news from Korea Beat is that the slimeball who made the tape, referred to in the story as Kim, has been arrested and is sitting in an LA jail.

Kim has been imprisoned in Los Angeles on unrelated charges. Prosecutors in Seoul have requested the United States Department of Justice to extradite him. It has not yet been decided whether that will happen. Baek’s agency has said that it cannot comment at this time.

If he’s extradited this is going to be huge news in Korea. To her credit Baek has resurrected her career, first as a nightclub singer, but now can be seen on the popular weekend song showcases.  Six years  later  she is generally respected for persevering the ordeal, though her name still gets a few chuckles. My wife’s brother doesn’t think she should be on TV.  

I think if this guy ends up back here  a large part of the  public might attempt to reverse the aggression it put forth when the sex tape was released.