Original subtitles

THE FOLLOWING FILM CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE

INCLUDING AGAINST MINORS, WHICH MAY BE DISTURBING FOR SOME VIEWERS.

TO PROTECT THE VICTIMS, ALL EXPLICIT PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

IN THE FILM HAVE BEEN REENACTED,

WHILE TEXT MESSAGES AND SPECIFIC LOCATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.

FREE SHIPPING

NEW

NEW MESSAGE

GODGOD YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING GODGOD

YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW

WHAT? STOP JOKING AROUND LOL WHO ARE YOU?

I'M SERIOUS… I'M LETTING YOU KNOW BECAUSE I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU

THESE ARE PRIVATE PHOTOS

DO YOU KNOW WHO UPLOADED THESE PHOTOS?

DAEUN GIRLS' MIDDLE SCHOOL 9TH GRADE, CLASS 2, PARK SO-RA

HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?

HEY SO-RA, DO AS I SAY OR I'LL SEND THE PHOTOS TO EVERYONE AT SCHOOL

WHAT?

INSTALL TELEGRAM AND LOG IN

WHAT'S TELEGRAM?

JUST INSTALL IT

TELEGRAM

DOWNLOAD

TELEGRAM

MY FILES, TELEGRAM, TWITTER

4TH ROOM GODGOD IS TYPING

LIVE SLAVE SHOW

WE HAVE A NEW SLAVE GUYS LOL

GODGOD'S SLAVE SHOW BEGINS

THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN

PARK SO-RA HAS JOINED TELEGRAM

TODAY

YOUR HOME ADDRESS

1522-8932, HAGIK-DONG, INCHEON YOUR DAD'S PHONE NUMBER 010-2674-XXXX

I'M SURE YOUR DAD AND YOUR FRIENDS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THESE PHOTOS

PARK SO-RA IS TYPING…

I'LL DO AS YOU SAY. PLEASE DON'T SEND THE PHOTOS

TAKE A NAKED PHOTO OF YOURSELF DON'T COVER YOUR FACE

IF YOU DON'T ANSWER IN 10 SECONDS, I'M SENDING OUT THE PHOTOS LOL

PARK SO-RA: PLEASE…

ARE YOU FOR REAL? I SAID NUDES. WANT ME TO SEND THE FUCKING PHOTOS?

PARK SO-RA: PLEASE DON'T

SEND MORE I'LL GIVE YOU 5 SECONDS

[classical tense music]

[reporter 1] Many victims, including minors,

were blackmailed into filming sexual videos…

[reporter 2] Created sexually exploitative videos of minors…

[reporter 3] Graphic sexual videos were shared via Telegram…

- The Nth Room… - Nth Room…

- The Nth Room… - [reporter 4] The Nth Room case…

SEND THE PHOTOS IN 5 SECONDS

JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK

[reporter 5] The victims' personal info was used to force them to comply.

10TH AND 11TH ROOMS HAVE BEEN HARD FORKED

TELEGRAM AND THE NTH ROOMS ROSE TO PROMINENCE

[keyboard clacking]

KIM WAN, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH

[Kim Wan] It was a Sunday morning.

[camera shutter clicks]

I was having a relaxing Sunday, playing with my kids.

[Kim Wan's son] How can you lose to him?

[Kim Wan] I was also thinking about what stories

I wanted to cover the following week.

But I suddenly got a call from work

asking to check a tip we had received via email.

REPORTING THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM

THE HANKYOREH

Back then, I had no idea something like this was happening on Telegram,

and I couldn't figure out why this person would send us such a tip.

So, honestly, I wasn't even sure if there was a story to follow.

The Internet and child pornography

had been a major issue for a long time,

so I thought, "Could this even be news?"

MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRL MOANING IN FRONT OF HER COUSIN

♪ LOLI ♪ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 12-YEAR-OLD SLEEPING, SO HOT

But it was Sunday, and only a few people were at the office.

So I thought I'd work on it that day and be done with it.

That's the mindset I had when I started covering it.

REPORTING THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM

REPORTING PARK CHAN-SU, A JUNIOR AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE HIGH SCHOOL,

WHO DISTRIBUTED CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM

3 ATTACHMENTS

The informant stated that a high school student

was continuously distributing child pornography

in a Telegram chat room that has around 9,000 members.

The informant even gave me the locations where the IP address was used…

down to the exact addresses of the user's locations.

It's stated that the student

is attending a foreign language high school in Incheon.

As the accused was supposed to be going to a prestigious high school,

it was highly likely that he was regarded as a model student.

I thought that set the story apart from other similar cases,

so I ran the story that night.

EXCLUSIVE: SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS CIRCULATING ON TELEGRAM

ASSUMED TO BE RUN BY TEENS 19,000 CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LINKS SHARED

The article could've covered the story of the Telegram chat room run by teens,

which they used to share and distribute pornography,

and then the main suspect was arrested the next day.

At the time, I thought that would be the end of the story.

INBOX

YOU'VE BEEN DOXXED LOL CHECK TELEGRAM

THEY HAVE YOUR PERSONAL INFO

CHECK THE LINK BELOW

THEY'RE DISTRIBUTING YOUR PERSONAL INFO IN A TELEGRAM CHAT ROOM

A few people told me they got ahold of my personal info.

THE HANKYOREH REPORTER KIM WAN

EXCLUSIVE, MY ASS HE JUST STOLE SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK

AND MAKES HEADLINE NEWS LOL

I was confused as to what was going on.

And was quite taken aback.

REPORTER KIM WAN IS AN ILBE MEMBER AND A PEDOPHILE

It began with my photos.

The ones you can find when you look up my name,

so I thought it was not a big deal.

But there were photos of my children too.

So my family and I began to get very anxious and worried.

CHOCO: WE'VE GOT HIS FACEBOOK NONO: LOL

HOHOHONG: BASED

EVENT: CATCH WAN NOVEMBER 11, 2019 - INDEFINITELY

EVENT: CATCH WAN

FIND OUT HIS DATE OF BIRTH,

THE NAMES OF HIS WIFE AND KIDS, OR THEIR PHONE NUMBERS

PRIZE: A CHANCE TO ORDER A SLAVE TO TAKE 1 PHOTO THAT YOU WANT

The fact that an anonymous group of people was launching an attack against me

really stressed me out.

OH YEON-SEO, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH

At a meeting, we were told that a new task force would be formed

with Wan as the leader

and that about two people would be working with him on that team.

I didn't volunteer to join the team

and I didn't really think I'd be asked to work on it.

[Yeon-seo] I never thought I'd be joining that task force.

To be honest, I was scared because I saw them getting ahold of

and distributing Wan's personal info after he published that story.

I understood the importance of covering the case,

but I was afraid to jump on it.

But at the same time, I was intrigued.

I had mixed feelings about it.

Wan is such a competent reporter,

I didn't expect there would be that much work for me.

The investigation seemed to be so serious and difficult

when I heard that I'd be working with him.

After going through everything, I was most shocked

by the fact that the photos and videos of the victims

were shared in the chat room

along with the photos that were taken in front of the victims' homes.

Like, this is where so-and-so lives.

The purpose of those acts

was to show off how much control they had over the victims' lives.

That's what I think.

It really horrified me, though. That's what shocked me the most.

The task force was formed on November 13 last year.

That was the date I joined the Telegram chat rooms

and started monitoring the situation.

A lot of people who had read our article sent us numerous emails

saying we should go after someone called Baksa,

and how he was the worst one.

A TIP-OFF ABOUT BAKSA

YOU'RE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE BAKSA IS THE REAL DEAL

KIM WAN, YOU LOSER YOU NEED TO GO AFTER BAKSA!

BAKSA IS THE EVIL MASTERMIND BEHIND IT ALL LOOK INTO HIM

BAKSA

That's when I thought I should look into the Baksa Rooms.

When I was wondering how I should go about covering Baksa,

someone called "Joker" emailed me.

NEW

We were cautious in contacting him

because I knew my personal info was circulating in their chat rooms.

Plus, it was difficult to determine whether we could trust his tip.

We called him with our office phone, and he said he was in Daegu.

He asked us to meet him at a subway station there.

We thought there could be Baksa's men

among those who contacted us with a tip.

Whoever they may be.

So we had to be more careful when meeting people offline.

We were nervous that they might bring others along when meeting us.

So we only communicated via email and we told him in the emails

what we'd be wearing on the day of the meet-up.

Stuff like that.

Then Wan and I went to Daegu to meet him.

BANWOLDANG STATION

[Kim Wan] We decided to meet at one of the entrances at Banwoldang station.

BANWOLDANG STATION

Joker said he'd be wearing a white down jacket.

I was wearing a gray coat,

but I told him I'd be wearing a black one.

I told Yeon-seo that something might happen.

Like how Baksa could bring his men…

and actually attack me or cause harm.

So I told her to keep her distance while l assess the situation.

I was trying to look at what's going on while hiding.

To see if he brought someone along or if we could trust him as an informant.

But, incidentally, while we were waiting, a minor car accident took place.

So, all of a sudden, there was a huge fuss right in front of the station.

People gathered asking if people were okay and stuff like that.

[Kim Wan] So we were thinking, "What do we do?"

From the outside,

criminals don't always look like obvious criminals,

but he looked too ordinary.

Like an average young man you'd see on the streets.

He couldn't even look us in the eye.

He was quiet and polite.

[Kim Wan] So we all went to a cafe to talk.

JOKER WHISTLE-BLOWER

In the world of Telegram chat rooms, Baksa was a god-like figure.

I sent Wan an email

telling him about the types of chat rooms there were.

JOURNALIST KIM WAN, SUBSCRIBE

SUBSCRIBE

Joker first contacted us saying that someone he knew was a victim of Baksa.

As a journalist, I thought I would be able to interview one of the victims.

Someone I knew contacted me.

She said she was in some kind of trouble and wanted to meet up, so we did.

Then she told me about everything she had been going through, crying.

She told me about those chat rooms and everything else.

That's why I joined one of those rooms.

I believe there were nude photos,

and as I recall, each of them was watermarked.

BAKSA

CERTIFIED BY BAKSA BAKSA'S SLAVE

You know, like how people put watermarks in photos or videos

for copyright purposes.

Baksa did it to show people that he was the one

who created the content he was sharing.

It'd say "Baksa"

or "Baksa's victim."

And I also think there was "slave."

BAKSA'S SLAVE CERTIFIED BAKSA'S SLAVE

BAKSA

TELEGRAM

Baksa usually approached women who were looking for jobs or needed money,

and pretended he could help them get a job to get a conversation going.

FIT MODEL 2~8 MILLION WON OR MORE INQUIRIES: TELEGRAM K8GOOSE

[Yeon-seo] That's how he lured them into joining Telegram

because most people don't really know much about Telegram.

BAKSA: HELLO

HELLO

Baksa contacted the victims claiming he was a broker

and asked the victims for sample photos.

[Joker] Then the victims wound send photos of themselves.

At first, the victims would take normal photos of themselves fully dressed

or photos of themselves in revealing underwear.

BAKSA: YOU'RE VERY PRETTY YOU'LL MAKE A GREAT FIT MODEL

HMM… COULD I GET SOME SHOTS OF YOUR BODY TOO?

CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

At first, the victims were asked to make this hand sign, and after that…

[camera shutter clicking]

He told the victims he needed their bank account

and other details to wire them the money.

You usually provide proof of identity when you work part-time,

so they gave him their personal info without question.

[Joker] I heard that when he got the photos of the victims' ID cards,

he started blackmailing them and asked for more revealing photos.

[Kim Wan] Your photo could get leaked, and he already had your address.

The victims were then exposed to the threat of being harmed even further

since a bunch of anonymous men now knew where they lived.

After obtaining the victims' photos and info,

his relentless harassment and threats began.

I've been trying hard to get those videos out of my head,

but I remember two victims who seemed very young.

CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

They were saying among themselves, "Do we have to do this?"

They were in a public restroom.

[Kwang-il] A very young-looking child licked the floor tiles…

and said, "I can't do this anymore."

I remember those videos…

and the looks on their faces.

They really didn't want to do it, but they were forcing themselves to smile.

In total, I think I saw around ten to 20 victims.

It was repulsive.

Just…

I don't know how to explain it, but seeing the video made me irritated

and angry.

There were so many pens stuffed into female genitals.

There was a photo of it.

Why would anyone take a picture of that? Why? Why do such a thing?

These weren't even one of those illegally filmed sex tapes

that were watched for voyeuristic purposes.

The women

had to carry out certain missions that were given to them.

They were told to perform these grotesque, bizarre acts,

and everyone in the chat room watched them together.

And before that,

he would share the victims' personal information in the chat.

[Kim Wan] And everyone would share their plans to harass the victims.

BAKSA ROOM, 1,750 MEMBERS

BAKSA: KIM JI-HYE

UNIT 302, 609-21 GONGHWA-DONG, NOWON-GU, SEOUL

SANGSANG: LOL NONO: I'M GOING TO LOOK IT UP ON THE MAP

609 GONGHWA-DONG, NOWON-GU, SEOUL

SEARCH

WHO WANTS TO GO TO HER PLACE WITH ME?

NONO: LOL HOHOHONG: LET'S GO RAPE HER

SHE'S PROBABLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT SHE LOOKS AS IF SHE'D LOVE IT

STREAM IT FOR US WHEN YOU GET THERE

I once saw the chat room members harassing one of the victims together in real-time.

BAKSA: WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?

TAKE A PHOTO IN THE BATHROOM

NOT THERE YET?

TAKE A PHOTO OF YOURSELF NAKED IN THE STAIRWELL, RIGHT NOW

When the victim refused to do as he said,

Baksa kept threatening her and trying to convince her repeatedly.

Then he invited others into the chat room,

and all these people started attacking her.

It was really shocking to watch.

JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK

CHAECHISEU: HUMILIATE HER

HASO: I WANT TO SEE HER LICK A TOILET SEAT

HORIRI: MAKER HER CRY ON HER KNEES

LOL THIS IS AWESOME

HORIRI: HER FACE IS NOT MY TYPE

SEOKSA: SHOW US ANOTHER SLAVE HOHOHONG: I'LL GO FIRST IF WE RAPE HER

NONO: OUTDOOR HUMILIATION KIMPIAO: BAKSA, YOU'RE THE MAN

The victims obviously felt uneasy about it and thought it was strange.

CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

When I say "strange,"

first, you have to understand this feature on Telegram.

[Eun-jo] The victims sent photos of themselves

because they were told all the photos would be deleted after they were seen.

They're supposed to be deleted automatically.

However, when the victims said "no" and refused to do as they were told,

they were presented with all the photos that they had sent previously.

TELEGRAM

TELEGRAM NEW MESSAGE

Then he'd keep saying,

"If you take this photo, I'll delete the others."

And there were many teenage victims.

[Eun-jo] I heard that about 50 to 60 photos

could be taken in just an hour.

But once the photos were taken and sent, there was no going back.

THE CREATOR OF THE BAKSA ROOMS

CREATED SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS AND EXCHANGED THEM FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY

[Yeon-seo] We decided to focus our investigation on Baksa

and started monitoring his chat room.

Then we noticed that a lot of people kept asking

where they could find the Nth Room videos.

WHERE DO YOU GET THE STUFF FROM THE NTH ROOMS?

NTH ROOM

That's when we first found out about the Nth Rooms.

We were like, "What are the Nth Rooms?"

We looked into someone called "Godgod" who had been engaging

in similar illegal activities for much longer.

At the time, we didn't know what they were exactly.

But while Yeon-seo was doing her research

after the special task force had been formed,

we discovered that someone had already reported on the Nth Rooms.

2019, EXCELLENCE AWARD

DO YOU SELL PORN VIDEOS FEATURING MINORS?

CHAT ROOMS THAT SHARE ILLEGAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

THEIR INTEREST WAS THE NUMBERED ROOMS

INFILTRATED THE TELEGRAM CHAT ROOMS FOR ABOUT A MONTH

SAVED UP EVIDENCE OF PEOPLE SHARING THE LINKS TO THESE ROOMS

ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES RAMPANT ON TELEGRAM BY TEAM FLAME

[Kim Wan] It immediately piqued my interest.

Then we learned it was a piece submitted to a competition

by a team of student journalists called Team Flame.

I was curious and wanted to meet them.

I told them that I would visit them immediately wherever they were,

and they said they were in Yeouido.

YEOUIDO STATION

We met at a cafe by the Yeouido station

and sat at a table in the corner.

[tense music]

BUL, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME

[Bul] I'm Bul from Team Flame.

[Dan] I'm Dan from Team Flame.

DAN, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME

I was an aspiring journalist,

and Bul, who worked with me, was also a university student

who wanted to be a journalist.

I took a journalism course

and in that course, I wrote a lot of articles about illegal filming.

One day, my professor told me

about a journalism contest and suggested that Bul and I enter.

[Bul] We thought that the people we were reporting about

would most definitely scour the internet

to find information about us once we published the article.

[Dan] That's the reason we work undercover.

It's just like how detectives don't want people to know what they look like.

We feel the same way.

Keeping our identities hidden helps us feel more at ease.

At first, we decided to report on the issue of illegally filmed videos

and did a lot of research

to find websites where such videos were shared.

SPYCAM

[Bul] The search terms I used included "spycam,"

"middle school girls," "high school girls,"

and "public exposure."

Those were my main searches.

Then I stumbled upon a website called "AVSnoop."

I found it just about ten, maybe 15 minutes after I started googling.

GATEWAY TO THE NTH ROOMS

RUN BY WATCHMAN WHO PROMOTED THE NTH ROOMS

AND HELPED SPREAD THE CONTENT

[Bul] When we infiltrated the site in July of 2019,

Watchman was the site's owner.

And I found a post about the "Number Room" incident.

It described what the Nth Room victims went through in detail.

[Dan] Watchman had listed all the victims from the first room to the eighth.

It included their names, ages, and where they're presumed to be living

along with info on their schools

and even what grade and class they were in.

It also stated how many people were in each of the rooms.

And there were details about each victim, like, "Her breast is shaped like this."

"She's chubby" and so on.

And how they behave, stuff like that.

Even as I was reading it,

I couldn't believe that it was actually happening in Korea.

After that, we felt that we had to look into it.

About five hours after we began monitoring the chat room,

one of the perpetrators said that…

[Bul] "Anyone who changed their profile picture to an anime character

would be given the link to an Nth Room."

ANIME CHARACTER BREASTS

KOR SUBS, DAVE A LITE UTOPIA #81

SAVE IMAGE AS

CHANGE PROFILE PHOTO

CAN I GET THE NTH ROOM LINK TOO? PLEASE

ANGDDUIBANG: YOUR PROFILE PIC

I CHANGED IT

ANGDDUIBANG: THE TSUNDERE FROM DAVE A LITE

ANGDDUIBANG: SHE'S MY FAVORITE

LOL

As soon as I entered the chat room,

the first thing I saw was the color of skin all over a video.

There were videos of nude young girls.

Some of the victims were ordered to write "slave" on their bodies.

SLAVE

Also words like "personal pussy," "personal toilet," and "bitch."

Sometimes, they were ordered to carve such words on their bodies with knives,

not just to write them with pens.

They were ordered to read aloud phrases such as "I'm Godgod's slave."

I AM GODGOD'S SLAVE

One of the most gruesome things I saw was a victim being ordered

to pierce her body with a needle and string.

Then she was told to hang things off the string.

We saw an announcement in the first room posted by Godgod,

which read, "I am sharing these videos

because the slaves in the videos refused to do as I said.

I won't share the videos of the slaves who obey my orders, so don't worry."

GODGOD ANNOUNCEMENT

THESE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS WERE OBTAINED BY THREATENING THE GIRLS

THEY DISOBEYED ME AND RAN AWAY SO YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THEM

IF YOU ARE WORRIED IF I HAVE PHOTOS OF YOU

YOUR PHOTOS WON'T BE SHARED AS LONG AS YOU DO AS I SAY

SO THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY

THE CREATOR OF THE NTH ROOMS

PRODUCED MULTIPLE SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS

NTH ROOMS GODGOD

JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK

NEW MESSAGE

GODGOD YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING GODGOD

YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW

[Dan] Godgod would send the victims a link to a site

where he claims their photos are being shared.

YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW

WHAT? STOP JOKING AROUND LOL WHO ARE YOU?

I'M SERIOUS… I'M LETTING YOU KNOW BECAUSE I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU

The moment they click on the link, they'd be phished.

DO YOU KNOW WHO UPLOADED THESE PHOTOS?

DAEUN GIRLS' MIDDLE SCHOOL 9TH GRADE, CLASS 2, PARK SO-RA

That's how their accounts with their personal information

ended up in Godgod's hands.

YOUR HOME ADDRESS 1522-8932, HAGIK-DONG, INCHEON

YOUR DAD'S PHONE NUMBER 010-2674-XXXX

I'M SURE YOUR DAD AND YOUR FRIENDS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THESE PHOTOS

I'LL DO AS YOU SAY. PLEASE DON'T SEND THE PHOTOS

[phone chiming]

SEND MORE I'LL GIVE YOU 5 SECONDS

I thought I should report it to the police right away

if this was really what was going on.

We believed we should inform the police immediately.

The article came second.

That's how we came to report it to the police.

GANGWON PROVINCIAL POLICE

GANGWON PROVINCIAL POLICE AGENCY

CYBER INVESTIGATION UNIT

[In-jae] We were on a work trip at the time.

We were traveling a lot.

Traveling across the country.

My colleagues at the Chuncheon Police Station

told me about this new type of crime that had occurred on Telegram

and that it seemed pretty serious.

The case was a little different from what we usually handle.

The number of videos was shocking even for me.

There were so many videos of the victims.

I could tell that it wouldn't be a simple case

where we track down just one suspect.

[Young-sil] The thing about Telegram is that the chat rooms are flexible,

and how they're constantly deleted and created again.

So apart from the chat room link that we had obtained,

we couldn't get the authorization to access the other rooms.

It was very difficult to get into the other rooms,

so we got help from Team Flame.

They gave us the links to other similar chat rooms.

The officers suggested

that we start a chat room

where we could share the evidence that we had collected.

THIS IS THE CYBER INVESTIGATION UNIT AT GANGWON PROVINCIAL POLICE

TELEGRAM CASE INFO CAN BE SHARED HERE

HELLO, OFFICER

I'LL UPLOAD ALL THE SCREENSHOTS OF THE NTH ROOM CHATS HERE

THIS USER HAS BEEN VERY ACTIVE IN THE CHAT ROOM RECENTLY

[Dan] A user named "Rabbit," who joined the chat room after we did,

became the manager of the room with over thousands of members

in just a little over a week after joining the chat.

TIKTIK: LOLIS ARE SO HOT OI: RABBIT'S WORKING HARD LOL

RABBIT: I DON'T DO GIRLS OVER 12

I ALSO HAVE A VIDEO OF AN 8-YEAR-OLD I'LL SHARE IT LATER TONIGHT

BY THE WAY, ANY OF YOU LOSERS WANNA MEET UP TODAY?

RAN A CHAT ROOM DERIVED FROM THE NTH ROOMS

DISTRIBUTED NUMEROUS SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS OF CHILDREN

Rabbit would readily spill his personal info in the chat room

as if the chat room members were his college friends.

He said he started college in 2018

and that he was attending…

GOOGLE MAPS

NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES IN JEONNAM

CHONNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

[Dan] He uploaded a photo showing that he was standing

at a subway platform in Sangmu Station.

A photo of a subway station sign showing the train's arrival.

CURRENT TIME: 11:22 SANGMU

IF ANYONE COMES TO THIS STARBUCKS RIGHT NOW, COFFEE'S ON ME

He told people to meet him at the Starbucks by Sangmu Station

and even sent a photo of that Starbucks.

Then after about 30 minutes, Rabbit said…

RABBIT: WHY ISN'T ANYONE COMING?

IT'LL TAKE ME 6 HRS TO GET THERE, YOU RETARD

GWANGJU? ENJOY YOUR COFFEE ALONE LOL

He said he got a physical on Thursday for military service.

[Bul] But "the results were garbage, damn it."

So I asked him "Why? What happened?"

MY EYESIGHT WAS MINUS 3

THEN WHY DO YOU NEED A REEXAMINATION?

BLOOD IN URINE

He gave us information about himself that wasn't common.

He even sent a photo of his physical exam results.

We looked at it, and based on such information,

we felt that we could catch him.

So we asked him when his second physical was booked for.

WHEN'S YOUR REEXAMINATION?

AUGUST 7

We sent all the info that we had gathered to the police.

HERE'S MORE INFO ON RABBIT

We wanted to know what happened after that, so we called the police.

We asked them if they caught him,

but they just said they'll let us know soon.

JEON IN-JAE, SENIOR INSPECTOR

We went to the site and verified everything.

We interviewed the residents to investigate the area he lives in.

We picked an area to investigate based on the subway line

and the university mentioned.

CHOSUN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

And we also checked with the hospital where he had his physical examination

to see if this person actually existed.

All the information seemed trustworthy.

We verified that the person in question exist and confirmed his identity.

Two days after that, I was studying in the library

and I saw the police's number pop up on my phone.

They said they caught him.

I started jumping around excitedly in front of the library, screaming.

I was so excited that I didn't care what others might think of me.

FIRST NTH ROOM PARTAKER TO BE ARRESTED

But Rabbit was practically a stooge compared to the other perpetrators.

We managed to get Rabbit arrested,

but there were still many others committing crimes on Telegram.

So we weren't satisfied with Rabbit's arrest.

Since there were more than one perpetrator to be held responsible,

we believed that the issue should be made known to a wider public.

NTH ROOMS

[Dan] People in the chat room were wondering who this "Godgod" was

and how he managed to sexually exploit so many victims.

They were curious as to how he created and distributed

so much sexually exploitative content that was considered rare.

People in the chat often discussed Godgod's identity.

Some said they looked up to Godgod.

1ST ROOM: 1,750 MEMBERS GUGURI: GODGOD, YOU'RE A LEGEND LOL

While others were saying that he went too far

despite enjoying the content shared in the Nth Rooms themselves.

BUT HE IS FUCKING SICK IN THE HEAD LOL

TORLRJ: HOW IS GODGOD GETTING ALL THESE VIDEOS ANYWAY?

AGMUN: THAT FUCKER WENT AWOL THOUGH

DJEJ: MAYBE HE'S BEEN BUSTED?

But because Godgod had disappeared

after distributing such videos,

the chat room members were all interested in finding out who Godgod really was.

EKFFL01: LOL NOBODY KNOWS

RLQNS: I WONDER WHO THE HELL HE IS

[Dan] Before Godgod disappeared, he sent messages such as

"My mom told me to get off the phone. My mom told me to go to bed."

MY MOM TOLD ME TO GET OFF THE PHONE

MY MOM TOLD ME TO GO TO BED

I LIVE IN A SCHOOL DORM

I'M OFF TO PLAY MAPLESTORY

I'M IN 12TH GRADE, SO I GOTTA STUDY

I HAVE TO STUDY FOR CSAT SO I'M QUITTING TELEGRAM

WILL YOU DELETE ALL OF YOUR CHAT HISTORY AND LEAVE THE CHANNEL?

[tense music]

EXCLUSIVE IN-DEPTH REPORT ON THE NTH ROOMS

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ON TELEGRAM

WE RECEIVED A TIP-OFF ABOUT SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF WOMEN,

INCLUDING CHILDREN AND TEENS, BEING DISTRIBUTED ON TELEGRAM.

WE BEGAN INVESTIGATING THE SECRET ROOMS THE PERPETRATORS RAN OVER TWO WEEKS

I felt confident that we could catch them.

I often said to Yeon-seo

that they would definitely get arrested if we made front-page news.

We knew they would have left traces.

We were sure we could catch them within the year.

We even talked about how it would become

the biggest issue of the year if they caught them.

NTH ROOMS RAMPANT ON TELEGRAM

BAKSA AND HIS SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ROOMS LOSER TURNED POWERFUL IMAGINARY RULER

RAN CRYPTOCURRENCY-ONLY SECRET ROOMS

FROM TEASER ROOMS TO EXPENSIVE MEMBERSHIP ROOMS

THE SECRET CHAT ROOM MEMBERS ARE AFTER THE MEDIA JACKALS

LURED WOMEN WITH JOB OFFERS AND THREATENED THEM TO SEND NUDE PHOTOS

We had hoped that the press would make this issue public.

When The Hankyoreh contacted us,

we finally felt like the case was going to be in the public spotlight.

And we were really looking forward to it.

TO IMAGINE SUCH CONTENT WOULD BE STORED ON COUNTLESS MEN'S PHONES

AND HARD DRIVES AS TROPHIES MADE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH

IN THAT WORLD,

WOMEN WERE NOTHING BUT OBJECTS TO BE EXPLOITED AND MOCKED

STAMP - BUSINESS CARD

THE HANKYOREH

SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS CIRCULATING ON TELEGRAM

The article was on the front page as the major story of the day,

so we believed that many journalists would take interest in the issue.

SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS CIRCULATING ON TELEGRAM

[reporter] Temperatures have dropped this morning,

following last night's rain.

A cold wave advisory has been issued in the capital area.

It's -1.1°C in Seoul this morning.

But nothing really changed.

It didn't get much attention, people didn't pay attention to it.

It was just seen as another common violence case against women.

[Kim Wan] After the article was published, the whole society seemed to be wondering,

"Why did The Hankyoreh put this on the front page?"

I was really puzzled.

I was sure that it'd have some impact, but nobody paid attention to it.

It was not at all what I had expected.

EARJING: WAN PUBLISHED A FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE

FFF: IT'S MORE LIKE A REVIEW, NOT AN ARTICLE

ATOOARI: THEY CAN'T CATCH US ON TELEGRAM ANYWAY

WOORI: WE'RE FAMOUS NOW LET'S CELEBRATE!

SSUN: ARE THERE ANY JOURNALISTS HERE? HELLO LOL

JE JO: MR. JOURNALIST, MAKE ME FAMOUS TOO

The managers of the chat rooms that derived from the Baksa Rooms

sent us mocking messages, asking us to promote their chat rooms as well.

BAKSA: HELLO, I AM BAKSA

[Kim Wan] Then Baksa changed his ID to something like,

"The only one The Hankyoreh promoted."

THE ONLY ONE THE HANKYOREH PROMOTED

And the chat room name was changed to something like,

"The only chat room in the media spotlight."

They were mocking and taunting us.

There were even people saying that they joined the chat rooms

after reading our article.

Seeing that happen made me very upset.

It was the day after our article was published,

or it was being published.

Baksa suddenly uploaded a photo of a victim in his chat room.

He said he'd call the victim "a victim of The Hankyoreh."

[Kim Wan] It was a photo of someone

standing in a strange pose bending forward.

And there was a watermark on it saying "The Hankyoreh's first victim."

THE HANKYOREH'S FIRST VICTIM

From what we knew,

those photos had never been shared in the rooms before,

so it was his way of saying he had more photos of the victims

and that he'd upload more if we kept publishing articles about him.

I guess you could say he was blackmailing us.

By saying that he'll be calling them "The Hankyoreh's victims,"

he was warning us that The Hankyoreh

would be responsible for all future victims.

[sighs] We were really scared.

If that had happened before we released the article,

I think I would have had second thoughts about publishing the article

in the first place.

For the first time, I thought that maybe we should stop.

I guess that's what Baksa wanted.

[Yeon-seo] At that time, one of the victims told me

she had learned that tens of thousands of people were in these chat rooms

that kept appearing and disappearing over and over.

She felt that she'd actually cross paths

with at least one of the chat room members if she walked around outside,

so she was too afraid to even leave her house.

[Kim Wan] For the first time,

I felt like I was just fighting thin air.

It was as if I was fighting against this illusory world that Baksa was in,

not something concrete like Baksa himself.

[Yeon-seo] It was a lonely fight.

Honestly, I was very demotivated,

and I didn't have the energy to continue.

[Bul] I felt like I was trying to do something that was impossible.

And I kept thinking maybe I should just give up.

I felt like there was nothing I could do and that I should just save myself.

I started feeling like my brain and my heart were both contaminated.

That's what made me decide to stop monitoring the chat rooms.

HOHOHONG: I'M GONNA ASK FOR A HANDJOB GO TAKE A NUDE SELFIE IN THE BATHROOM

SANGSANG: LET'S GO RAPE HER

I'M SORRY I REALLY CAN'T DO THIS

WILL YOU DELETE ALL OF YOUR CHAT HISTORY AND LEAVE THE CHANNEL?

LEAVE CHANNEL

2 MONTHS LATER

CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

JTBC STATION

JEONG JAE-WON, PROGRAM DIRECTOR SBS'S Y-STORY

SBS STATION

I was shocked when I read the article published by The Hankyoreh in November.

But at the time, I didn't think we could do any further reports on it.

However, people who believed it was a serious issue

posted a lot of tweets on Twitter with the hashtag "The Nth Room case."

EVERYONE PLEASE LOOK INTO THE NTH ROOM CASE

[Jae-won] Even though the mainstream media wasn't paying attention to the case…

WE MUST PUBLICIZE THE NTH ROOM CASE

…many women on Twitter were already aware of the seriousness of the issue.

THE NTH ROOM CASE NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION

The producer in charge didn't like the topic.

He said the case didn't seem different from other issues

such as distribution of illegally filmed pornography on file-sharing sites.

At first, when we were thinking of covering this case on our show…

CHOI KWANG-IL PROGRAM DIRECTOR, JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

…I couldn't believe it was real.

I thought we should try to contact Baksa.

I sent messages in the chat rooms that I'd been investigating.

Um, asking people to contact us.

[Jae-won] Even Baksa and Godgod themselves.

I asked people to contact me if they knew about Baksa or Godgod.

HELLO, THIS IS Y-STORY

PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON GODGOD OR BAKSA.

I went through the screenshots that Ms. Chang, the writer, shared with me,

and read The Hankyoreh's articles about the issue and the victims.

As I was going through these things,

I couldn't believe something like that was actually happening.

So I went to meet Kim Wan, the journalist who had covered the issue.

He told me about everything he had gone through while investigating it.

He told me how tough the process was and how vicious Baksa is.

He told me all about how Baksa taunted him.

He told me everything.

I told everyone this wasn't ordinary pornography.

I told them that it's abuse.

I strongly insisted that we cover it on our show.

I thought the issue could bring the whole country down.

I came to think that it was an issue we needed to cover.

So…

Um, I really pushed for it.

CONTACT JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT TEAM IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO ON BAKSA OR BAKSA'S ROOMS

BAKSA: ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?

Have we ever had a criminal contact us first?

No, never.

Baksa firmly believed that he'd never get caught.

He blindly trusted that Telegram would keep him protected.

That's probably why he got in touch with the press first.

To bluff or gloat, so to speak.

I mean, he didn't have to do that.

BAKSA IS TYPING…

I'M BAKSA.

This was his first message. "Are you really from Spotlight?"

[Kwang-il] He was using the kind of language

used by a certain online community full of scumbags.

I had to be polite to him as an interviewer,

and he suddenly changed his attitude.

He acted like he was pretty old and called me Mr. Choi.

He asked me to call him Mr. Bak.

BAKSA: I GO BY MR. BAK I WILL ADDRESS YOU AS MR. CHOI

PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK

I RUN A PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY

PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK

I ALSO SELL DRUGS ON THE DARK WEB

He said he had his own gang in another country.

He asked, "If you were asked to shoot someone, would you do it?"

- [gunshot] - He said he would do it

if it benefited him.

[Jae-won] That's what he told me.

- "I'm a loan shark." - He said, "My passport got canceled."

"I have my own gang."

He said he was hiding in Cambodia.

I pretended not to know anything and asked him where he was.

And he said, "I'm in Cambodia now. Didn't you know that?"

CAMBODIA

He said he was in China.

CHINA

So I told him I was willing to go there to meet him

and it wasn't a problem at all.

BAKSA IS TYPING…

We were talking for a while,

but then he suddenly went quiet for about ten minutes.

He said he got a package delivery.

So I asked him if there was a similar delivery system

as Korea in Cambodia as well.

Then he got upset and told me not to look down on Cambodia.

He said, "Come and meet me if you can."

It was during the Seollal holidays.

He said, "I have a lot of free time because of the Seollal holidays."

I asked, "Don't you call it Chunjeol in China?

Everyone must be celebrating. Aren't you?"

Then he said he was actually in Cambodia.

While we were talking,

I asked him what time it was in Cambodia, and he got upset.

He'd brag about the things he's done.

And when we ignored him,

or showed that we didn't believe him,

he'd reveal stuff about himself.

He even showed us his Bitcoin account.

He said he will make a deal with me,

producer Jeong Jae-won.

He said if we went ahead and let the show broadcast,

he'll make one of his victims, or "slaves" as he calls them,

whom he had been sexually exploiting

take her own life by jumping off the roof of the SBS building.

BAKSA: A WOMAN WILL EITHER THROW HERSELF OFF THE ROOF

OR SET HERSELF ON FIRE IF YOU BROADCAST ANYTHING ABOUT ME

[Jae-won] He said he would win if he did as he said,

and he would lose if he failed to keep his word.

I met Kim Wan when I started working on this story.

Together, we had a discussion about this,

whether Baksa was actually capable of doing such a thing.

He was someone who'd always be bluffing,

but would never have the guts to do anything drastic.

We both believed that it wouldn't really happen.

By making the media focus on the issue,

we tried to make the investigative bodies put more manpower into the investigation.

We believed that might help speed up the investigation.

We wanted to help the police and the prosecution catch the perpetrators

by raising public awareness of the Nth Rooms.

So we decided to air the episode.

A CALL FOR AWARENESS OF TELEGRAM SEX CRIMES

DIGITAL SEX CRIMES RAMPANT

[tense music]

The show aired on the 17th,

and I think the video appeared the following weekend.

[Joker] Someone was wearing a plastic bag over their head…

with their neck hanging from a doorknob.

It was a video of Baksa's victim

saying that she would kill herself at the SBS building on a certain date.

This video began circulating in Baksa's

and other Telegram chat rooms.

OJ: I AM BAKSA'S SLAVE.

I WILL KILL MYSELF ON THE ROOFTOP OF THE SBS BUILDING IN A FEW DAYS

BECAUSE BAKSA'S STORY WENT ON THE AIR

BAKSA'S SLAVE

It felt like

he wanted to show off that he had the power

to make someone commit suicide.

VICTIM

BAKSA: IF THE JTBC SHOW AIRS, THERE WILL BE ANOTHER VICTIM

NAMED "THE SPOTLIGHT VICTIM"

Two days before the show,

he blackmailed us,

saying he'd make a "Spotlight victim" if we aired the episode.

SPOTLIGHT VICTIM KIM U-RI

BAKSA: I PLAN TO POST THE VIDEO ALONG WITH HER NAME,

OCCUPATION, AND ADDRESS

OFFICE WORKER 379-127 GAAN-GU, SEOUL

Then we actually got a call from Team Flame.

We had been working very closely with them.

Team Flame called me,

and asked if I could reconsider airing the episode.

It was so stressful. I knew there would be a victim.

He even stated the victim's job, her name,

and the specific location where the crime would occur.

He said he'd reveal a video of her with specific body parts covered.

He announced that two days before the show was supposed to air.

[Kyu-yeon] Baksa, the person who reigns as king

in the Telegram chat rooms.

[male reenactor] To get to me, you'll have to turn

the whole country inside out.

That's why I'm not scared.

BAKSA: HERE'S THE NEW GIRL,

SINCE YOU AIRED THE SHOW DESPITE THE WARNING

[tense music]

BAKSA: HERE'S THE NEW GIRL, SINCE YOU AIRED THE EPISODE DESPITE THE WARNING

SPOTLIGHT VICTIM KIM U-RI

OFFICE WORKER 379-127 GAAN-GU, SEOUL

Personally, I didn't think

he'd actually upload that video.

I apologized to the victim.

I told her I really didn't expect that he'd actually release the video like that.

But the victim told me

that I shouldn't let it get to me.

She said that was exactly what Baksa wanted.

She also said the video was bound to be released anyway.

And that he was trying to use it

to get our program involved.

Was it my fault?

I didn't know what to say.

I made her a victim.

I felt so guilty about what happened to her.

SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE

SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY

I heard that Baksa announced that he'd make one of his victims

commit suicide at the SBS building.

OJ: I AM BAKSA'S SLAVE.

I WILL KILL MYSELF ON THE ROOFTOP OF THE SBS BUILDING IN A FEW DAYS

BECAUSE BAKSA'S STORY WENT ON THE AIR

BAKSA'S SLAVE

LEE MIN-SANG, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR

We only had the video at first.

Her torso was the only thing we could see, so we didn't have enough clues.

We had notified the precinct in charge of the area

where the SBS building is, just in case something happens.

And we tried to find the victim.

She seemed really young in the video.

CHOI JI-HOON, SENIOR INSPECTOR

In order to identify the victim,

we analyzed all the photos Baksa had posted.

We looked for even the smallest clues that would help us find the victim.

And while going through the data obtained from Baksa's chat rooms…

BAKSA'S SLAVE

BAKSA'S SLAVE

We discovered that Baksa had shared the victim's videos and photos before.

The same girl in the video who was saying she'd commit suicide.

Eventually, we found a video showing her face.

In the video revealing the victim's face,

there were books behind her.

[Ji-hoon] We found some tiny letters that looked like her name.

That's how we found out her name and the name of her school.

NURI MIDDLE SCHOOL, KIM EUN-JEONG

After a lot of searching, we finally managed to identify the victim.

NURI MIDDLE SCHOOL

SEARCH RESULTS:

SHOW ALL

I think it was

the day before Seollal.

The highways have been packed with traffic

due to the large number of people visiting their families for the holiday season.

[Min-sang] Since it was the holidays, there was so much traffic.

I think we didn't arrive there until 11 p.m. or midnight.

We decided to keep watch until the morning

just in case the victim tried to do something unpredictable.

We were waiting to see

if she'd come out looking like she was going somewhere far.

And we were looking at her window on the floor where she lived

to see if some kind of action would go on in her window.

We parked our car nearby so we could keep an eye on her

and took turns keeping watch in pairs until the morning.

We didn't approach her right away in the morning.

We stayed outside to see if anyone would come out.

We waited a couple of hours, but nothing happened.

So we all went upstairs

and met with the victim and her parents.

BAKSA'S SLAVE

When we entered her room,

we saw the twine that was used

to take the photo hanging from the doorknob.

We also found notes that she had been forced to write,

such as "Baksa's chat room is the best."

All those notes were just lying around.

Baksa had been threatening to harm her

so she was very frightened at the time.

She couldn't refuse to do as he said.

Since I also have two children of my own, I explained the situation to her parents.

I told them what was happening, that Baksa was blackmailing her,

and told them not to worry about retaliation.

We assured them the safety of their daughter.

[Seung-noh] I knew we had to catch him no matter what.

It wasn't just me.

Everyone in my unit was determined to catch him.

[Kyu-yeon] Baksa ran three secret chat rooms that had membership fees.

The Hard Room, with a membership fee of 250 thousand won,

the High-rolling Sponsors Room that costs 500 thousand won to join,

and the most exclusive room that costs a million won to join.

It is estimated that Baksa has earned over 100 million won

from those three rooms.

I monitored Baksa's chat room while having dinner and watching our show.

IT'S ON!

THIS IS GONNA BE FUN

TALKING BULLSHIT FROM THE START

SEOKSA: SHE'S GODGOD'S SLAVE, NOT BAKSA'S

HASO: ISN'T SHE IN THE 5TH ROOM? BAKSA: HOW WOULD I KNOW?

HOHOHONG: YOU HAVE TOO MANY SLAVES, BAKSA

The members were all talking about it in the chat room.

They tried to guess who the victims were.

"That's so-and-so.

Actually, maybe not."

"Is that her?" They were mocking us.

"Hey, they're calling me a hikikomori.

This is hilarious.

The Korean police said they'd catch me.

We'll see about that."

He started to seem agitated

when we mentioned Bestcoin.

When Bestcoin was brought up…

He seemed perplexed

and suddenly went quiet after saying, "What?"

[Kyu-yeon] Following a small lead,

we found the cryptocurrency exchange used by Baksa.

[Kwang-il] Have you seen this recently?

[man] Yes. I think about 100 of those were being sent to Baksa.

CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE PLATFORM

USED BY BAKSA TO SELL SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS

He started complaining about us ruining his business.

All the members started panicking,

and asking if they were going to get caught.

That day, I think there were about a thousand people in the chat room.

BAKSA: WHAT?

HANA: THEY FOUND BESTCOIN

NONO: NO WAY EVERYONE WHO'S SENT MONEY IS SCREWED

CHAECHISEU: THEY WILL FIND THE DEPOSITORS

HORIRI: WHAT DO WE DO NOW, BAKSA?

After that, he started to explain the situation.

BAKSA: I UNDERSTAND MANY OF YOU ARE WORRIED AFTER WATCHING THE SHOW

MANY OF MY CUSTOMERS HAVE ASKED ME IF THEY WOULD BE OKAY

He told them that those who paid to join the rooms were totally safe.

I HAVE PROVED MYSELF TIME AND TIME AGAIN I HAVE OVERCOME A LOT

YOU CAN TRUST ME AND JOIN THE ROOMS

Baksa continued to send messages about how he was still totally safe.

Then he opened different accounts for different kinds of cryptocurrency.

I think he tried to change his modus operandi a little.

BAKSA: THIS IS MY NEW ACCOUNT

MONERO FOR INQUIRIES, BAKSAYA

I'VE SET UP A NEW ACCOUNT BITCOIN

YOU CAN PAY ME HERE NOW ETHEREUM

We thought following the money would help us obtain a clear lead

because there had been a monetary transaction

for this crime to be completed.

At first, we didn't put much thought into it.

But since his earnings from his crimes were hidden there,

we thought the info could be useful.

[Kim Wan] So we sent all the screenshots to the police.

BAKSA: I'VE SET UP A NEW ACCOUNT BITCOIN

YOU CAN PAY ME HERE NOW ETHEREUM

Baksa had to get his hands on the money.

[Min-sang] So, when people sent cryptocurrency payments

to his wallet,

he had to get that money somehow, by cashing it out or using other methods.

So we focused on finding out how the payments were being cashed out

and who was getting the money in the end.

People at Bestcoin told us Baksa tried to cash out all the payments

sent to his Monero wallet.

He wanted to cash out about five million won.

[Kwang-il] On Telegram, Baksa said he'd send a ninth-grader

to pick up the cash,

and a ninth-grader picked up the five million won.

BAKSA: GO TO THE EXCHANGE AND CASH OUT THE COINS THAT WERE TRANSFERRED

YES, SIR

Baksa seemed to have figured out a way to monetize

and profit from this type of crime

while engaging in these activities.

He somehow knew that having the payments sent to him

through messenger apps or directly to his bank account,

or even fake accounts and fake phones was risky.

So he only accepted cryptocurrency payments.

And when he wanted to cash them out,

he got people to pick up the cash and throw them in random places.

BAKSA: THROW THEM AT OUR USUAL SPOT

A Chinese man who has dealt narcotics

by "throwing" the drugs at specific locations

for his clients to pick up, has been arrested.

[reporter 1] A man who has sneaked into an alleyway in the dark of night

checks his cell phone then leaves a suspicious parcel

below the AC unit and leaves.

This is a new method of dealing drugs called "throwing."

CHO SEUNG-NOH, SENIOR INSPECTOR

He didn't use the common methods that we had seen in the past,

such as receiving gift certificates in exchange for such videos.

The way he received payments

and got people to "throw" cash in certain places

was very similar to what we had seen in phone scams.

I'd say it was almost identical.

PHONE SCAMMER TRICKED

[reporter 2] An old man returns home with a paper bag full of money.

He was blackmailed to withdraw cash from his bank account

and leave the money at his front door

because his personal information had become compromised.

He had become a victim of a phone scam.

The 11 million won he had left at his door disappeared quickly.

It made us think that he could've been involved

in phone scams as well.

We thought there was a possibility.

We had a list of Baksa's IDs and accounts that he was using on Telegram.

THE ONE AND ONLY STAR BAKSA

@BAKSAYA USERNAME

INQUIRE THROUGH TELEGRAM POP1332

FOX BOMB @FOX♪♪♪

LOOKING FOR PART-TIME MODELS 2~800 PER MONTH PLUS BENEFITS

IF YOU WANT TO BE A FITTING MODEL, SEND ME A PICTURE OF YOUR UNDERWEAR

DON'T YOU ANSWER??

COPY USERNAME

[Seung-noh] Even though some IDs were used in a phone scam,

they were identical to those Baksa used on Telegram.

TELEGRAM ID, CHDRL098 SOLD PERSONAL INFO TO USE IN PHONE SCAMS

TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE SIMILAR TO PHONE SCAMS

When Baksa introduced himself in his Telegram chat rooms,

he'd say that he ran a private investigation agency.

So we looked up the agencies that might be linked to those IDs.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We focused on his Telegram IDs.

Using the list of IDs we had,

we looked for past cases that Baksa's IDs were involved in.

And during our search…

LIM ♪♪♪-♪♪♪ (TELEGRAM ID, MON21134)

DESPITE KNOWING CHOI ♪♪♪'S CRIMES JEONG ♪♪♪-♪♪♪'S TELEGRAM ID, HOTHOT09 WAS…

KIM ♪♪♪-♪♪♪ AND LEE ♪♪♪-♪♪♪ UNDER THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE

SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT DATE: MARCH 2019

ACCUSED: KIM, LEE CHARGE: NARCOTICS FRAUD USING TELEGRAM.

SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT

[Min-sang] We found several narcotics and firearms fraud cases.

[gunshots]

The couriers in those cases were Kim and Lee.

INVOLVED IN NARCOTICS AND FIREARMS FRAUD

HANDLED ILLEGAL FUNDS FROM CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES

CHARGED WITH FRAUD UNRELATED TO THE BAKSA CASE

We discovered that the Telegram ID Kim and Lee both mentioned…

CASE SUMMARY

KIM AND LEE WERE CONTACTED ONLINE AND GIVEN ORDERS BY MR. BAK

WHO USED THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE, AND RAN A PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY

…was one of the IDs…

GO TAKE A NUDE SELFIE IN THE BATHROOM NOW

…that Baksa was using in this case.

Both Lee and Kim were under arrest at the time.

They were both convicted with four or five charges.

CASE SUMMARY

KIM AND LEE WERE CONTACTED ONLINE AND GIVEN ORDERS BY MR. BAK

WHO USED THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE

You'd usually see a single count on the case reports,

but they were convicted under drug trafficking,

firearms trafficking, and fraud charges, all separately.

And they both said that they were working for…

LEFT THE MONEY FROM THE VICTIMS BY A FIRE HYDRANT AS PER MR. BAK'S ORDER

THEY DO NOT KNOW WHO MR. BAK IS AND WERE GIVEN ORDERS VIA TELEGRAM

[Seung-noh] For an agency run by Mr. Bak.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK

There were about

70 to 80 chat rooms that Baksa had created.

When we looked through all the chats, we noticed that he often mentioned

that he used to run a private investigation agency.

He could have been lying, but it could have been true as well.

So we suspected that Kim and Lee could be close to him,

or that maybe one of them was Baksa himself.

We specified dozens of suspects who we thought could be Baksa.

We kept narrowing down the list by a process of elimination.

Eventually, we were left with one suspect.

BAKSA: BUDDA, DID YOU PICK UP THE CASH?

BUDDA: YES

BAKSA: THROW THEM AT OUR USUAL SPOT

BAKSA ROOM

BUDDA ROOM

BAKSA'S RIGHT-HAND MAN

PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION VIDEOS

HANDLED ILLICIT FUNDS FOR BAKSA

One day, Baksa told Budda to open a cryptocurrency account,

withdraw money from it and put it somewhere for him.

Budda was already in police custody for some other case.

SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT

DATE: NOVEMBER 2019 SUSPECT: KANG (TELEGRAM ID 'BUDDA')

CHARGE: STALKING A MINOR

STATEMENT

Q: YOU'VE BEEN ARRESTED FOR STALKING A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL

WAS THIS CONNECTED TO THE BAKSA ROOM CASE?

A: NO, IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BAKSA ROOM CASE

While admitting to the crime he committed,

he stated he was just Baksa's errand boy.

We asked him, "What kinds of errands?"

Under Baksa's orders, Budda created cryptocurrency accounts,

cashed the payment Baksa received in his own bank account

and delivered the money to Baksa.

He claimed he was threatened by Baksa

to throw money somewhere for him to retrieve.

It was the same for Lee and Kim.

They collected the money from their narcotics and firearms schemes

and left them somewhere for Baksa to retrieve.

There were several locations.

And when we looked at the locations used by Baksa and his delivery,

we were able to narrow it down to a few spots.

[Seung-noh] Lee, Kim, and Budda

had all previously delivered money to one of those locations in the past.

SUWON

We tracked it to a place nobody would ever think of.

FIRE HYDRANT

It was a fire hydrant inside an apartment building.

We confirmed that a cash payment had been left there.

We had to find the final destination.

Simply put,

the person who takes the money in the end would most likely be Baksa.

[Seung-noh] So we kept tracking the money.

Our whole team did stakeouts for about a month.

We believed someone in the apartment

had been collecting money from the fire hydrant.

[Seung-noh] Based on the information we obtained

about the dates and times of the drop-offs and the specific fire hydrants…

[Min-sang] We looked through months' worth of CCTV footage

to see who took the elevator and who walked up and down the stairs.

[Seung-noh] Sometimes, they got off on that very floor,

but there were times when they got off on a different floor

and used the stairs to get to the fire hydrant.

In the process of analyzing the footage,

we spotted a suspicious resident.

So we started tailing her.

She looked young,

but she'd wire a large amount of money using an ATM.

She would usually act like a normal kid, hanging out with her friends and stuff.

[Min-sang] But on certain days,

she'd take the subway and go somewhere far to meet someone.

We saw her doing that.

So we investigated all her routes,

and kept a record of when they met up and parted ways,

and what was happening in the chat rooms after the meetings.

We analyzed everything.

If Baksa was seen in the chat rooms while they were meeting,

then it probably wasn't Baksa.

[Seung-noh] But then again, he was rarely seen in the chat rooms.

NONO: WHERE'S BAKSA? SANGSANG: WHERE DID MR. BAK GO?

So we tracked that man again.

He went to another location after meeting that girl.

And he met another man at a new location.

According to Baksa's claim he made in that chat room,

he was living abroad

and apparently, he had his men collect and wire his money to him.

If that was true,

that man would be giving the money to another man.

But it was the other way around.

He collected money from the other man.

The money from the fire hydrant…

[cameras shutter clicks]

…and the money from the other man.

[cameras shutter clicks]

We saw that this man was collecting all the money.

So, with this…

we concluded that he had to be Baksa.

BAKSA ROOM

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

[tense music]

There were around 40 of us working on the case that day.

One group was tailing him on a stakeout

along the routes from the subway and the bus station to his home.

[Seung-noh] And another group was on a stakeout near his home.

ACTUAL CCTV FOOTAGE

If we knocked on his door and barged in when he was home,

he'd obviously try to destroy all of the evidence.

We had to arrest him when he was still logged in on Telegram

to obtain solid evidence.

[Seung-noh] The thing about Telegram is that

everything gets deleted when you log out.

So we waited for the right time.

From around 6 or 7 a.m.

I think we were on a stakeout for about eight to nine hours.

There was no movement for hours.

Then, finally,

around 4:30 to 5 p.m…

he left the house to go for a bike ride.

[Min-sang] It seemed like his father was teaching him how to ride a bike.

After doing that for a while, they went back home.

We were constantly monitoring his Telegram chat rooms as well.

We were waiting on the roof of his house.

[suspenseful music]

ACTUAL CCTV FOOTAGE

SEOUL JONGNO POLICE STATION

[interviewer] I think it was premeditated.

It's the people's right to know and to prevent crimes.

[reporter 1] Do you have anything to say to the victims?

Thank you for putting an end to the life of a demon that I could not stop.

[reporter 2] Do you admit to the charge of distributing pornography?

[reporter 1] Don't you feel guilty?

[reporter 2] Don't you feel guilty?

Do you admit to the crimes?

[Kwang-il] Mr. Bak!

It's me, Mr. Choi! Why did you lie to us?

[reporter 3] Don't you feel guilty?

Don't you want to apologize to your victims?

CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Mr. Bak!

[woman] Repent!

The day after Cho Ju-bin's interview, a story about him was on the front page.

[Dan] When I saw that his face was on the front page,

I stomped on the newspaper.

That's how much I despised him.

Although Baksa was caught,

the victims never got a word of apology out of him.

Baksa being arrested wasn't the end of it all.

If he's labeled as "a demon,"

the millions of others who had participated in those chat rooms

would seem less evil by comparison.

By referring to himself as "a demon,"

it seemed like he was trying to put himself on a pedestal.

Not "demon" meaning "bad."

Almost as if he was boasting that his deeds were unparalleled.

I was disgusted that he called himself that.

Cho Ju-bin and other co-conspirators of the Baksa Rooms have been arrested.

However, the whereabouts of Godgod,

the first one to have created the chat rooms is still a mystery.

BAKSA ROOM

NTH ROOMS

LAST ONLINE 11 MONTHS AGO

CURRENTLY ONLINE

I heard that Godgod wanted to meet me

after the Y-Story episode on Baksa had aired.

He said this in one of the chat rooms.

GODGOD IS TYPING

GODGOD: TELL JEONG JAE-WON AT Y-STORY TO CONTACT ME IF YOU SEE HIM LOL

ADFS: GODGOD, YOU'RE BACK

ADFDF: ARE YOU REALLY GODGOD?

[Jae-won] If something on the show provoked him,

there was only one thing I could think of.

The part where Baksa mentioned Godgod.

"Godgod produces low-quality content."

I think that's what provoked him.

It got him

really riled up.

THIS IS SBS Y-STORY'S PROGRAM DIRECTOR JEONG JAE-WON

HELLO, MR. JEONG

HELLO, MR. JEONG

WE'RE A TEAM OF HACKERS TRYING TO TRACK DOWN GODGOD

I just call them "Red Team."

They're a team of hackers.

They said they were capable of tracking him down

and were already working on it.

They had already collected a large amount of data

and had the means to obtain his personal information and address.

They were legitimate.

AN ANONYMOUS HACKER GROUP

TRACED GODGOD AND HANDED HIS INFO OVER TO PROGRAM DIRECTOR JEONG JAE-WON

Red Team contacted Godgod pretending to be one of his followers

and told him…

SEND DIRECT MESSAGE

THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR IS COLLECTING TIP-OFFS ABOUT YOU THROUGH THIS LINK

SBS IS COLLECTING INFORMATION ABOUT NTH ROOMS

And Godgod clicked that link because he was nervous.

We got a lead on him.

There were scripts embedded in the page.

KANG IN-WOOK, WHITE HACKER RAON WHITEHAT

In the digital world,

you inevitably end up leaving traces once you're connected to a network.

Criminals cannot hide forever because of that reason.

I reviewed the data from the Red Team.

There were hidden codes that could extract info on Godgod.

So we could say that he fell for the exact same trick

that he always used on his victims.

[In-wook] This is Godgod's IP address. We can see more details here.

We were able to see the cell phone model that he was using.

If you look up the IP address, you can see the location.

ANSEONG

[Jae-won] It was Anseong.

It was a building in the city of Anseong, in Gyeonggi province.

When he clicked on the link,

he was using a public Wi-Fi network on his Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

Through the data provided by Red Team,

we were able to obtain this information.

The police got a warrant issued based on the reported IP address.

Then the Internet service provider informed the police that the IP address

belonged to a wireless router used by a company in Anseong.

GYEONGBUK PROVINCIAL POLICE

[Jun-ho] We had a list of IP addresses associated with Godgod.

In order to track the multiple IP addresses that he had used,

we drew circles based on the locations of the IP addresses.

[Ho-jin] Then we listed the suspects living in the area

where the circles overlapped.

SON JUN-HO, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR

We were able to specify a house that seemed to be Godgod's residence.

He usually committed the crimes at his apartment

or his parent's place.

And he got the tools he needed from his father's shop.

[Ho-jin] His father ran a junk shop.

There were a lot of discarded phones there,

so he kept switching phones.

[Han-gyeo-re] He'd either use a discarded phone

or instead of using his personal router,

he'd use someone else's router.

He used every Wi-Fi network around

that didn't require a password to connect to.

[Ho-jin] It was hard to catch him.

[Han-gyeo-re] Because he was using IP addresses

assigned to other people's routers.

CONNECTING

And since he was using Wi-Fi extenders to connect to them from afar,

the police couldn't get his exact location at first.

He even got rid of the routers periodically.

We confirmed that he destroyed all the evidence

when the case became known to the public between January and March.

Godgod initially saved the videos of his victims on his SD cards,

which he disposed of periodically.

Before disposing of them,

he uploaded the videos to a cloud storage named Mega

and shared the links to the Telegram chat rooms.

GODGOD: IT'S UPLOADED TO MEGA

[Han-gyeo-re] He used a random email address

to create an account for the cloud server,

so he himself didn't even remember the password.

He only used the account to distribute the videos.

There was a video that Godgod had recorded,

which showed his phone's screen.

TELEGRAM

4TH ROOM, GODGOD LIVE SLAVE EVENT

WE HAVE A NEW SLAVE LOOK FORWARD TO IT

[Ho-jin] We could see which applications were installed on his phone.

Many of them weren't commonly used apps.

Apps like Mobizen, TextNow, a lesbian dating app, and so on.

MOBIZEN, L

[Jun-ho] When we visited the junk shop, we saw a lot of old phones.

There was a huge pile of them.

We believed there was a high probability that those were used in his crimes,

so we seized dozens of phones from the junk shop.

[Ho-jin] We narrowed them down to a few that seemed to have been used by him

and performed a digital forensic analysis.

GODGOD'S PHONE, SUSPECT'S PHONE

Mobizen, a lesbian dating app.

[Jun-ho] Twitter, four different accounts, and TextNow.

Similar applications were installed on both phones.

So we concluded that the suspect was Godgod.

We showed him the phones that we seized from the junk shop

and asked him if they belonged to him.

He hesitated a bit,

but eventually admitted that he is Godgod.

The Telegram chat rooms that shared sexually exploitative…

- The one who created… - These Nth Rooms…

- Godgod… - Telegram ID…

- Godgod has been arrested. - Godgod has been arrested.

[reporter 1] A man is being escorted out by the police.

He has a round face and is wearing glasses.

Godgod's expression seems indifferent and calm.

This is the moment Moon Hyung-wook,

AKA, Godgod's face, is being revealed to the public.

Even as he is apologizing,

he doesn't seem to be feeling an ounce of regret.

I want to tell the victims and their families that I'm sorry.

[reporter 2] What was the purpose of those crimes?

I think I had corrupt sexual ethics.

[reporter 3] What's your relationship with Cho Ju-bin?

[Hyung-wook] I do not know him.

[reporter 2] Say something to the victims!

[officer] That's enough. Please stop now.

[Hyung-wook] I'm sorry.

- I'm sorry. - [officer] Step down.

[reporter 4] Look here!

- [reporter 3] Excuse me. - [reporter 4] Hey, over here!

Coming through.

[phone ringing]

CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT

Um, it was a young kid.

When I first got the phone call,

something felt off.

You know, the sounds that we hear in our everyday lives…

Something that young kids would say like, "Mom, I'm talking on the phone."

I could also tell that the TV was on,

and it sounded like her mother was cooking in the kitchen.

So I thought, "This isn't a phone scam."

Then she said, "I want to report.

Something about the Nth Rooms."

CHANG EUN-JO

She sounded very young.

She said, "Hello?"

When I answered the call, I could hear her saying,

"No, Mom! I have something to do. I'll be right back."

Then it sounded like she was stepping out of the house.

It was fine up until that point.

She said, "I was bored, so I started chatting with random people online.

And this person said he'd give me money if I sent him some photos."

Then things happened very quickly.

She said, "My family had to move because of me.

I transferred schools."

But then, many people saw the video of her

and sent it to her asking if it was her.

I told her everything was going to be okay.

She said her parents were worried

that she might try to take her own life.

Then…

she talked about the video she was forced to make,

and I could tell who she was.

And then…

she described the other things she had done.

As soon as I heard it,

I knew what she was talking about.

I knew exactly

what she was talking about, because I had seen the videos of her.

But I was telling her it was okay.

That nobody knows.

"All I did was click on the link. I only chatted with them.

I only watched the videos and did nothing else."

Digital sex crimes become more serious

when such media produce becomes shared between multiple people.

All the small acts that people don't take seriously

could end up inflicting tremendous harm on the victims

when combined and accumulated.

You can easily destroy the victims' lives

and prevent them from continuing with their normal lives.

It only takes one click.

"I didn't rape or sexually assault anyone.

Everyone watches videos on YouTube or other streaming sites.

All I did was watch some hardcore stuff

Why should I be punished for it?"

But from the victim's point of view, their actions clearly inflicted harm.

It's so obvious.

The victims were exposed to a serious crime

and they'll be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

What's even worse is that it's not just one person who's involved.

Multiple people were involved in the Nth Rooms case.

This crime would not have occurred without any demands for it.

Cho Ju-bin never would've been able to commit all those crimes

had there not been that demand for such content.

[Eun-ho] The public was only made aware of this case

after the victims had endured abuse and exploitation for a long time.

It was only after they decided to expose the abuse they had been suffering

that the investigation could begin.

Some of the victims decided to come forward

because they didn't want others to experience what they had suffered.

When I asked the victims what motivated them to report the crimes

or what made them muster up the courage to do it,

they said they wanted Baksa to get caught.

And some said they hoped Telegram would disappear.

They didn't want anyone else to become a victim.

They were really brave.

Without their courage, we wouldn't have been able to air the program,

and Team Flame and The Hankyoreh wouldn't have been able to report on it.

One of the victims told us…

OH YEON-SEO, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH

…that there was a comment on one of the articles that said,

"Please tell me what I can do to cheer on and support such brave daughters."

That was the comment.

There were so many articles about Baksa at the time,

and she said that one comment

gave her so much strength.

She said it made her realize that there were actually people out there

who were rooting for her.

And that comment meant more to her than any of the other articles.

[calm music]

[staff] Would you still cover this story if you could go back in time?

No, I wouldn't want to do it.

I really wouldn't.

I mean it.

It was like hell for me.

[Kim Wan] It was hell because of the responsibility and ethics involved.

I'd have to do it if I knew about it.

I probably would have been happier had I not covered the story.

I can answer that without any hesitation.

That I would still write that article for sure.

[Yeon-seo] These days, I keep finding myself thinking,

"Why didn't I dig into that in November?

Why didn't I dig deeper?

Why didn't I take a screenshot of that?"

I think I'd do a better job if I could go back in time.

I often think that maybe I could've helped the police

catch the perpetrators sooner.

If only I could go back in time, I'd start working on it in February.

So I could stop them sooner.

DAN TEAM FLAME

Assuming I could go back in time that is.

I mean, if only that were possible,

I'd go back to the moment when Godgod and Cho Ju-bin were born

and help them grow into better people.

[Bul] Had I known about it sooner, I would've investigated more thoroughly.

BUL, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME

To be honest, I have a lot of regrets about that.

The Nth Rooms were like the gates of hell.

It had always existed, but we had been ignoring it all this time.

But since that gate is now open, society at large has to face this issue.

Things are changing for the better…

but I don't think we've changed enough.

THE SUPREME COURT SENTENCED BAKSA, CHO JU-BIN

TO 42 YEARS IN PRISON IN OCTOBER 2021

HE COERCED 25 VICTIMS INTO FILMING SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE CONTENT

BETWEEN 2019 TO 2020

THE SUPREME COURT SENTENCED GODGOD, MOON HYEONG-WOOK,

TO 34 YEARS IN PRISON IN NOVEMBER 2021

HE COERCED APPROXIMATELY 20 VICTIMS INTO FILMING SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE CONTENT

BETWEEN 2017 TO 2020

A TOTAL OF 3,757 PEOPLE LINKED TO THE NTH ROOM CRIMES HAVE BEEN ARRESTED

AND 245 OF THEM HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED (AS OF DECEMBER 2020)

CASES SIMILAR TO THE NTH ROOMS ARE STILL GLOBALLY RAMPANT

THE VIDEOS CREATED IN THE NTH ROOMS ARE STILL BEING SOLD WORLDWIDE

VIA FOREIGN MESSAGING PLATFORMS AND THE DARK WEB

IF YOU OR AN ACQUAINTANCE HAVE EXPERIENCED SEXUAL ASSAULT,

INFORMATION AND SUPPORT CAN BE FOUND ON WWW.WANNATALKABOUTIT.COM

It is really not the victim's fault.

That is not true at all.

It is systematically rigged

so that anyone would fall victim to such acts

when they're put in the same situation.

Instead of asking, "Why did you do that? Why did you put yourself in such danger?"

We should realize that can happen to any of us.

There are many cases where people become victims

just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

How did the victims come to be blackmailed?

The victims know very well

that they will be the ones who are blamed when such videos are distributed.

They become susceptible to blackmail because of such fears.

So, the way we view the victims is also what reinforces such acts.

The videos wouldn't be made and distributed

if there wasn't anyone to watch them.

If nobody made or distributed such videos,

then no one could watch them.

The act of consumption and production are closely related to one another.

Either one of these two steps must be removed to prevent the other.

This is why we consider digital sex crimes

to be collaborative criminal acts that occur within a group.

It could happen to me, and it can definitely happen to you, too.

We need to work together,

so that cases like the Nth Rooms and the Baksa rooms

don't repeat themselves ever again.

[closing theme music]