What is Nth Room Case? Netflix documentary ‘Cyber Hell’ explores South Korean sex scandal
Trigger Warning: Mentions of Sexual abuse, trafficking, and suicide
Seems like the True Crime genre is expanding its horizons and Asia is finally on its radar. With international True Crime shows being globally popular, Netflix is now exploring the most notorious scandals from South Korea. Netflix recently released a crime documentary series that narrates the tale of The Raincoat Killer from South Korea, and it was high time the streaming platform looked into one of the biggest sex scandals in the country that came after the extremely sensational Burning Sun Scandal.
Known as the Nth Room Case (in Korean n번방 사건), it is soon going to be explored via a Netflix documentary titled ‘Cyber Hell: Exposing An Internet Horror’ or known as Cyber Hell for short. The show will discuss the controversial South Korean sex scandal that turned into a global phenomenon. The director in charge of the series said, “Everyone knows very little bit about the Nth case, but after seeing this documentary, you will feel that it was the tip of the iceberg.”
READ MORE
Who is BJ Chomyi? Former K-pop idol Somyi from DIA turns into an adult broadcaster
Burning Sun: Seungri needs to plead GUILTY to all 9 charges to get reduced sentence
What is the Nth Room Case?
The Nth Room is a digital sexual crime case that took place on the social media app Telegram in various chat rooms from the years 2018 to 2020. One of the many perpetrators of the crime was a user nicknamed ‘God God,’ who was later identified as Moon Hyung-Wook. He had created eight groups on Telegram and uploaded sexually exploitative pornography. The whistleblower of the Burning Sun scandal reported that he too would expose the criminal mastermind behind the scandal which involved blackmail, cybersex trafficking, and the spread of sexually exploitative videos via the Telegram.
It has been reported that many individuals hosted such chat rooms following the Nth Room Case on the platform where malicious videos were shared, one of them being the ‘Doctor’s Room’ hosted by an individual named Doctor who was later revealed to be Cho Joo-bin. The videos involved in both these cases displayed extreme tendencies, particularly towards women, involving non-consensual sex as well as sexual assault, hidden cameras (known as molka), incest between siblings as well as sexual crimes toward children and the elderly. Chats from the Nth Room Case perpetrator Cho Joo Bin also revealed that he claimed to have stored videos of various celebrities as well as K-pop idols and Korean entertainers. Reports revealed that the videos were sold using cryptocurrency and involved suicidal challenges which were similar to the Blue whale challenge, which involved people cutting themselves for online viewers.
Netflix announces the release of 'Cyber Hell’
The documentary series aims to reveal the reality of the crime after interviews with 24 people who were personally involved in the case and who will share information that was not revealed by the news during the revelation of the scandal. These 24 individuals include reporters, production directors (PDs), police, as well as a few victims of the Nth room incident.
The series is set to explore the methods used by the perpetrators of the Nth Room scandal. It has been revealed that the perpetrators were known to have initially guaranteed their clients anonymity only to later threaten them with hacking, illegal transactions using cryptocurrency, online harassment, and exploitation behind an online username.
‘Cyber Hell: Exposing An Internet Horror’ is directed by popular director Choi Jin-sung, who is known for his work in documentary projects like ‘The Plan’ and ‘The Reservoir Game’. ‘Cyber Hell’ is set to release on May 18. Watch the trailer for the documentary series here.
