8 years ago, her sex tape was leaked. Now, man in video is arrested for sex crime in US
By Chang May Choon
CALL him Korea's Edison Chen.
In 2000, former celebrity manager Kim Seok Jin shot to notoriety after a sex video of him and his charge - K-pop singer Baek Ji Young - started circulating on the Internet.
He then fled to the US but made headlines again last week, this time for statutory rape charges.
Kim, 45, was arrested by the police in the Koreatown area in Los Angeles on suspicion of having sex with a minor aged below 18, reported Yonhap News Agency.
He is also known by the name Kim Si Won in Korea, although his real name is said to be Kim Seok Wan.
He had been on the US wanted list for two years.
A request for bail was put up but rejected by the US court last Tuesday, after US officials received an extradition request from the Korean government.
So far, Ji Young has yet to comment on the news.
Sources close to the singer told The Chosun Ilbo that she 'may not want her name mentioned in connection with Kim since the sex tape scandal nearly ruined her career'.
Theirs was a scandal not unlike that which plagues Hong Kong actor Edison Chen and female stars like Gillian Chung and Cecilia Cheung.
TALK OF THE TOWN
Their sex photos appeared online in late January and have been the talk of the town since.
Over in Korea, Ji Young, 32, was last seen in public on 2 Feb, performing at a charity concert at Yonsei University in Seoul, reported My Daily.
Two days later, she reportedly underwent vocal cord surgery to remove a cyst that had caused her voice to break during performances.
She is now supposed to rest and not talk for three to four months, to allow her vocal cords to heal.
But Ji Young has been through worse trials and trauma.
Debuting in 1999 with a sexy image and a hit salsa single, she was soaring up the music charts when a sex video involving her and Kim was leaked on a pay-per-view pornographic website in November 2000.
Kim later admitted in a phone interview with a live entertainment programme on TV that he had filmed the video without Ji Young's knowledge in his office in 1998.
Public outcry ensued and TV stations, radio stations and advertisers alike were quick to boycott Ji Young.
But instead of making herself out to be a 'naive and silly' victim and making a fast exit, the plucky singer put up a fierce fight to stay in showbiz.
Times Asia said she 'defiantly vowed' to continue singing 'if a single fan wants me to', and her resilient attitude won the support of feminist groups and others.
But it was not so easy to sway public opinion.
Severing ties with Kim who had fled the country, Ji Young managed to release a new album in the aftermath of the saga but failed to convince Korea's three main free-to-air channels to lift their bans on her.
