Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Following public outcry regarding the Nth Room Telegram case, police did decide to reveal the identity of one of the key figures behind it, naming 25-year-old Cho Joo Bin as a suspect.
The reveal led to a flood of other stories about the alleged perpetrator emerging, most notably that he’s also being charged with conspiracy to commit murder for taking ~$4 million for a contract killing against a mother and daughter.
According to the SBS report on the 24th, Kang, a public service worker at the district office who also worked as a member of the “Paksa-bang” group was arrested on charges of secretly stealing the victim’ personal information for Dr. Cho’s sex crimes. Kang, who had made repeated threats against women in their 30s served one year and 2 months in prison and was released in March last year. After his release, he asked Cho to take revenge against a woman who had reported him. Cho visited the daycare center where the woman took her daughter after obtaining her address through Kang. Kang paid Cho 4 million won to kill the woman and child and left the money behind a fire hydrant at Cho’s house where he lived with his family. Fortunately, he didn’t get around to committing the crime but police confirmed they’ve charged him with conspiracy to commit murder.
He also threatened and extorted the media.
SBS also reported earlier that Cho Joo Bin is suspected of scamming ₩15 million KRW ($12,195 USD) from a reporter who was told he would receive a USB containing information about politicians.
One prominent name that was reportedly being threatened was JTBC president Sohn Suk Hee, who at one poin was told, “All I need is a brick, I can do it at any time. I will use it on [the person] at the side of the road.“
According to an exclusive report from Media Today, Cho Joo Bin, who was operating one of the Telegram Nth Rooms under the guise of “Baksa” (Doctor), sent Sohn Suk Hee threats to kill him. The threats were not just sent to Sohn Suk Hee, but also his family. During this process, Cho Joo Bin would send Sohn Suk Hee and his family members pictures of them with their personal information such as resident registration numbers. He would also include messages with the pictures.
The persistent threats led to Sohn Suk Hee sending him money, which made the threats stop.
Cho Joo Bin also sent messages to SBS journalists, threatening a woman if SBS reported on him.
Back on January 17th, SBS’s ‘Curious Stories’ displayed the messages staff members received from Jo Joo Bin (Baksa) on Telegram. When the staff asked Jo Joo Bin if he had no guilt, he stated: “I am not a psychopath and have guilt. But let me ask you one thing. How much would you take in order to shoot a person, PD-nim?” He continued, saying: “I would shoot boldly. If there are other profits to make as well.” Jo Joo Bin also sent threatening messages that could not be aired on the program due to their graphic nature, amongst them saying: “If anything relating Baksa goes out on SBS, one woman will jump or burn herself to death. No matter what way the accident happens, I have notified you of it and captured it as evidence.”
A middle school student also stepped forward to give an interview on CBS Radio‘s ‘Kim Hyun Jung’s News Show‘, detailing her horrific experience in a 13-minute interview that’s worth reading.
Additionally, while many celebrities spoke out about the petitions that were circulating in the aftermath of this, it was discovered that an account allegedly belonging to the suspect had been following a bunch of female celebrities on Instagram like ex-MOMOLAND‘s Yeonwoo, Brown Eyed Girls‘ Ga In, ex-Jewelry‘s Yewon, personality Shin Ah Young, actress Kim Ha Young, actress Lee Da In, and announcer Shin Ye Ji, all of whom spoke out about it.
As for Asian Junkie, well I don’t plan on doing constant updates for this like I did with Burning Sun for the sake of my sanity and because this doesn’t explicitly involve content relevant to the site (yet, and hopefully never), but I’ll try to at least follow up as major events in the case happen.
