hankyoreh

The police have finished their investigation of circumstances surrounding the suicide of actress Jang Ja-yeon and allegations she was coerced into having sex in exchange for advancing her career. Only two will face accomplices will face charges, while all the others who were suspected of participating are being cleared of official suspicion. Given the investigation went on for close to fifty days, the results of the investigation are pretty barren.

Initially the investigation began promising to dig out and expose the world of men in power who buy and sell sex with women as favors and special concessions, a world that exists in our society and outed by Jang’s death. However, the police have stopped short of scratching the surface.

They have in effect issued these individuals get-out-of-jail free cards without ever really questioning them including a certain highly influential executive at the Chosun Ilbo, who was named in a note left behind by Jang and in her family’s lawsuit. It was not until the day before the police announced the results of their investigation that they visited this individual to question him briefly. They then quickly announced that they were not charging him with anything. While they could be right in assuming there is nothing to accuse him of, it was too hasty of a conclusion when the president of the agency that used to be Jang's manager is still hiding in Japan and has therefore never been questioned.

The kind of investigation conducted is hardly enough to put to rest basic questions about why Jang would cite famous individuals like she did before taking her life. The police have been quite passive about going after these individuals, including the one at the Chosun Ilbo, changing the story about what happened in a manner that seems to primarily protect the executives in question. While a former president of South Korea is being summoned in for questioning in another unrelated investigation, the police fail to even visit prominent executives accused of taking sex for favors in a timely manner. There is why you hear people asking whether the investigation was adequate and whether there was outside pressure on the police as to the direction the investigation should take.

Another suggestion being made is that the police deliberately distorted the nature of the investigation, out of a clumsy attempt to be considerate of those in power, by focusing not on the questions about whether men were being compensated with sex but on how Jang’s parting note came to be leaked. It was close to a month after the investigation began and ten days after a warrant was issued that the police finally sent a request to the Japanese Justice Ministry to extradite the head of Jang's management. Now they blame Jang’s manager for their insufficient investigation results.

This investigation must not stop here. If we see the whole thing fizzle out and the public starts to forget it all, it will forever remain difficult for our society to rid itself of this dirty world of power. This is a case that needs to reinvestigation.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]