Video shows ex-vice minister in sex scandal: report

A broadcaster aired Friday part of a high-definition video clip showing a former vice justice minister singing while hugging a woman, an evidence in the investigation into a sex-for-favors scandal possibly involving rape charges.

Cable news broadcaster YTN said it had confirmed that the video shows Kim Hak-eui attempting to have sex with the woman, which the police said they obtained in May 2013.

Citing a video analysis expert, YTN said chances are “very high” that the man in the video is indeed Kim.

In March 2013, Kim resigned as vice justice minister after just six days in the office over allegations that he attended parties hosted by a contractor who procured women to have sex with high-profile figures in exchange for business favors.

The video was produced on Oct. 8, 2012 at a time when the wife of the contractor, Yoon Jung-cheon, sued Yoon’s mistress for adultery.

Yoon is suspected to have asked his nephew to extract from a video parts showing Kim, and copy it to a CD.

A member of the police investigation team said in 2013 that Yoon is believed to have made the CD to blackmail Kim as two had fallenout.

The prosecution said in a following probe, however, that the man in the video was “an unidentified man.”

YTN reported that police tried to investigate Kim in 2013, but was repeatedly obstructed by the prosecution.

YTN also said that 24 women were recruited by Yoon, and five of them said they had sex with Kim.

Police at the time stated three of them as rape victims, one of whom was recently sued by Kim for false accusation.

The five women, however, have consistently claimed that they only knew about Kim after arriving at Yoon’s country house, and did not want to have sex with Kim, YTN reported.

Police investigated the rape allegations against Kim in 2013, but the prosecution cleared him of the charges in 2013 and 2014. A reinvestigation is currently being carried out by a special Justice Ministry panel that looks into cases that may have been mishandled by the prosecution.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)