Lee In-young: "I Promise the People to Legislate Punishment for the 'Nth Room Case'"

Lee In-young, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 11th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Lee In-young, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced on the 11th regarding the 'Telegram n-bang' petition, "We will promptly complete legislation to strengthen the punishment of digital sex offenders." The 'n-bang incident' refers to a case where sexually exploitative videos filmed by coercing minors and others were distributed on Telegram.

Lee, at the floor countermeasure meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, said, "I promise the public to legislate on the Telegram n-bang incident."

He continued, "This is a sexual exploitation case and a tremendous human rights violation case," adding, "I cannot help but feel devastated by the fact that such human rights violations existed like a poisonous mushroom."

He also said, "Although public petitions were submitted to the National Assembly, only 1%, or 27 cases, were adopted in the plenary session," and added, "In April last year, the National Assembly Act was amended to revitalize the petition system, which had been ineffective, and it has been implemented since last month. We will do our best to legislate related bills so that the public can more easily petition for legislation."

Photo by Screenshot of National Petition Screen

The day before, a public consent petition related to 'Resolving Telegram Digital Sex Crimes' surpassed 100,000 signatures. The petition meeting the submission requirements is automatically referred to the relevant standing committee, where it undergoes review procedures such as being presented at the plenary meeting and discussed in subcommittees.

According to the amended National Assembly Act in April last year, the National Assembly has been implementing the public consent petition system since the 10th of last month, where a petition is established if it receives the consent of 100,000 citizens. This is the first case since the system's implementation where more than 100,000 people participated in a petition.

The petitioner, Mr. Choi, stated on the 15th of last month, "We must fundamentally resolve various forms of digital sex crimes occurring on Telegram so that victims can return to their daily lives and prevent recurrence of the same crimes," explaining the reason for submitting the petition.

He said, "Even after the Telegram sexual exploitation material sharing case known as the 'n-bang incident' was reported in the media, similar channels are still operating," and urged ▲ international cooperative investigations by the police ▲ establishment of dedicated digital sex crime units in investigative agencies ▲ institutionalization of response manuals including prevention of secondary harm ▲ strengthening sentencing guidelines for digital sex crimes.

Earlier, on the 2nd of last month, a petition demanding international cooperative investigation into the 'n-bang incident' posted on the Blue House public petition board also received more than 200,000 signatures, meeting the official response requirement of the Blue House.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.