International fundraising campaign to lambast Korean court for not extraditing child pornography site operator

Posted on : 2020-07-21 17:51 KST Modified on : 2020-07-21 17:51 KST
Fundraisers move to have ad raising awareness in New York’s Time Square
Kedophile’s Twitter account
Kedophile’s Twitter account

Funds are being raised for worldwide advertising efforts to criticize South Korean courts for their slap-on-the-wrist punishment of Son Jong-woo, the 24-year-old operator of Welcome to Video, the world’s largest child pornography website. The campaign among people angered by Seoul High Court’s decision on July 6 not to allow Son’s extradition to the US is now stretching across national borders.

A visit on July 20 to the Twitter account of “Kedo Out: Public Discussion Team for the Issue of Sexual Crimes Involving Children” (@Kedophile) showed its members were working to raise funds to take out an advertisement in New York City’s Times Square to raise awareness of the punishment handed down for distributing child pornography. An initial effort to raise funds to cover expenses for legal advice reached its goal within two hours of beginning on July 15.

Kedo Out plans to raise more funds and take out more advertisements through Tumblbug and other platforms going forward.

“Not only is the Republic of Korea not eradicating sex crimes involving children, but it has granted freedom to someone who distributes child pornography,” the members explained on their reasons for choosing the center of New York City as a setting for their advertisement. They added that that the issue of sex crimes involving children “is a matter that requires global attention and solidarity.” The coinage “Kedo” is a combination of the letter “K,” meaning “Korean,” and “pedo,” which is short for “pedophile.”

An international petition filed on change.org
An international petition filed on change.org

The shockwaves from the decision not to allow Son’s extradition have continued to ripple in South Korea and overseas. Around 500,000 people added their names to the citizens’ petition to the Blue House demanding that Hon. Kang Young-su, the Seoul High Court senior judge in the case, is disqualified as a Supreme Court candidate. Citizens have also sent a barrage of complaint faxes to the Seoul High Court and embarked on a campaign to support a proposed amendment to the Extradition Act that would institute new procedures for appealing court extradition decisions. The international petition website Change.org currently has a petition under the title, “Our country supports paedophilias. Make Son-Jong-Woo send the USA.”

Remarking on Son’s crimes and the lightness of his punishment, the petitioner wrote, “How can you believe this word [that Son will be appropriately punished in South Korea] if you already saw the court sentenced a year and a half in jail to him?”

“If we release ‘Son-Jong-Woo’ here or give up to make send him to the US, it may in the future there is the second "Son-Jong-Woo" came out in Korea and may cause another babies and children in somewhere over 30 countries and make them suffer by sick Pedophilias,” the petition continued.

By Oh Yeon-seo, staff reporter

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

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