Seung Jaehyun: "If Hwang Ui-jo had any illegality, he would have been banned from leaving the country"

Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice Policy
Interview on CBS Radio 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show'

Experts have expressed the opinion that the leaked video of soccer national team player Hwang Ui-jo, who has been embroiled in a privacy controversy, is unlikely to have been illegally recorded.

Seung Jae-hyun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of Criminal Justice Policy, stated on June 4th on CBS Radio's "Kim Hyun-jung's News Show," "If there had been any illegality, I believe a travel ban would have been imposed."

It is known that Hwang Ui-jo departed on June 2nd to return to his club, Nottingham Forest of the English Premier League (EPL). On the previous day (June 1st), he appeared in person at the police station and was investigated as a complainant regarding the privacy leak.

The soccer national team friendly match between Korea and El Salvador held on the 20th at Daejeon World Cup Stadium. Hwang Ui-jo, who finished the game with a 1-1 draw, is greeting the stands. 2023.6.20 [Image source=Yonhap News]

Research fellow Seung speculated, "A supplementary statement from a complainant can initially be from the complainant, but during the investigation, if the facts point to the suspect, the complainant can be converted into a suspect. If he was allowed to leave the country without a travel ban, I cautiously suggest that the video itself may not be an illegally recorded material."

He added, "Personally, recording such videos in a relationship between a man and a woman can be uncomfortable from certain perspectives, but if both parties agreed, it is not problematic."

On May 25th, a person identified as A, who claimed to have been in a romantic relationship with Hwang Ui-jo, posted a revealing message about Hwang's private life on social networking services (SNS), causing a stir. A alleged that Hwang had promiscuous relationships with multiple women and possessed videos recorded without the women's consent.

The next day, Hwang Ui-jo filed a police complaint against A for defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act and for threats and coercion related to the use of recorded materials under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. Hwang's side claimed that his phone was stolen last year while he was playing for Greece's Olympiacos, and the leaked videos were stored on that phone, asserting that the videos were not recorded through illegal means.

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