[In-Depth Look] The Uniqueness of Evil and Jo Joo-bin

Heo Yoon, Senior Spokesperson of the Korean Bar Association

He was utterly ordinary. He did not have horns on his head or wings on his back in a frightening form. He resembled a close younger brother with whom I had shared a drink late last year. Someone who could be anywhere and get along with anyone without seeming strange, volunteers said he was an ordinary person. Nth Room’s Jo Joo-bin was like that. The German Nazi lieutenant colonel Eichmann was similar. Eichmann transported Jews from all over Europe to Polish concentration camps for extermination. After the defeat, when he appeared in court hiding in Argentina, people were shocked by the appearance of an ordinary middle-aged white man. Even testimonies from those around him that he was a moral family man caused bewilderment.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt explained this as the “banality of evil.” The Holocaust was not due to demonic nature but because ordinary people mindlessly carried out the tasks assigned to them. However, not all ordinary people become incarnations of evil due to social atmosphere or curiosity. Eichmann’s evil did not stem from ordinariness. In fact, after the war, Eichmann conspired with remaining Nazis to rebuild National Socialism and repeatedly expressed hatred toward Jews. Nevertheless, Arendt was deceived by Eichmann and focused social attention on the structural problem that “evil arises from ordinariness” rather than the crime itself.

There are people who talk about the “banality of evil” in the Nth Room issue as well. They say that male-centered social phenomena, drinking culture, and sexual harassment problems that exist even at this moment are the essence of the Nth Room and Jo Joo-bin incidents, though their appearances change. This is true. However, Jo Joo-bin’s crimes are not evil arising from ordinariness. Fraud, threats, distribution, murder conspiracy, and even charges of instructing sexual assault are far from ordinary behavior. There are more than 70 victims, including about 20 minors, and even influential people such as Son Seok-hee, president of JTBC, were not spared.

Movements pointing out social structural problems and urging reflection have their own significance. The words of Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, who vowed to punish all Nth Room-related individuals as a criminal organization, and the statement of Korea Communications Commission Chairman Han Sang-hyuk, who announced the full disclosure of the identities of 260,000 Nth Room-related people, also carry meaning. However, with ambiguous standards for punishment, these are mere rhetoric. They may neglect the crucial matters of thorough punishment of criminals and preparation of measures to prevent recurrence.

This is not to say that 260,000 people should be forgiven by discussing the difference between ordinary people and demons. Rather than the unrealistic slogan of punishing everyone, we should focus on the necessary punishment and justice. Nth Room-related criminals are already not being properly punished. Shin Mo, known as Kelly, was sentenced to one year in the first trial, but since the prosecution did not appeal, a light punishment is expected. The former operator of the Nth Room, Watchman, was also prosecuted for running a pornography distribution chatroom, but the sentence sought was only three years and six months. GodGod, the originator of the Nth Room crimes, is still missing. Several key perpetrators have not been properly punished.

There is another reason to focus on punishing the core perpetrators. Last year, only a few operators and administrators were punished in connection with the prostitution mediation site “Night War.” In the dark web child pornography site “Welcome to Video” case, the operator only had to serve one year and six months in prison. The operator of “Soranet,” which was abolished after 17 years, also received a four-year prison sentence. All of them will be released soon. Evil does not come from ordinary people but from special individuals. Special legal judgment must be swiftly and clearly imposed on them. This is not to say that Nth Room-related individuals should not be punished. It is to prevent an excessively broad scope that ultimately fails to fix anything properly.

Heo Yoon, Senior Spokesperson, Korean Bar Association

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