The Nth Room Case Explained

In late August 2024, social media was bombarded with information about “humiliation rooms” in South Korea. In these Telegram chat rooms, female colleagues, sisters, mothers and intimate partners were exposed to deep fake pornography.

Content warning for discussion about sexual abuse and the exploitation of minors.

This is not the first time that a similar case has occurred in South Korea where women have been sexually exploited through a network of chat rooms. South Korean journalist Kim Wan discovered a case involving a child pornography distribution network through an anonymous tip. Shortly after investigating the case, Kim’s personal information was leaked to the group chat participants. Kim and his family were threatened, but he decided to investigate further into what is now known as the Nth Room case.

What is the Nth room?

The Nth Room is a network of group chats where girls and women were forced into sexual slavery. Moon Hyung-wook (alias: god god) created the first Nth Room and methodically enslaved girls and women. To do this, Moon hacked the social media accounts of his target.

Moon would resort to psychologically exploiting these victims with the information he had on them. He would then force these victims to perform sexual acts in front of their cameras. This explicit material filmed by Moon would be used against the victim, thus ‘enslaving’ the victims to Moon.

In just one of Moon’s Nth rooms, at least 3,000 explicit pieces were uploaded. Furthermore, Moon was less interested in the profits to be made from exploiting these women. Moon simply enjoyed torturing these women, but despite this, Moon’s ‘the Gotham Room’ collected 10,000 won (about $7) per submission. There are at least 21 known victims of Moon, many of whom were minors at the time of the crime.

The doctor’s room

Moon is not the only leader of the Nth Rooms. Cho Jubin (aka the Doctor) turned the Nth Room into a twisted business venture. He charged from one million won to over 1.5 million won (over $1,000) for access to his VIP rooms. He even proudly claimed at one time that he made “two slaves a day.” Unlike Moon, Cho lured victims by promising them opportunities to make money. He demanded photos of them, but if they refused, Cho began threatening the victims. He humiliated these victims by manipulating them into filming explicit material.

The sexual crimes transcended the boundaries of Telegram, with several of Cho’s victims being raped by other members of the group chat. Additionally, Cho’s “slave” victims forced his victims to carve “slave” or “doctor” into their skin to brand them. The exploitation at this point became both mental and physical. Torture involving forced incest, human feces, insects, and sharp objects was common in the doctor’s office.

It comes as no surprise that Cho’s Doctor’s Room was known as the most sadistic of these chat rooms. Note that 16 of Cho’s 74 victims were minors. Women who are not directly coerced are not safe either. These Nth Room chats were also known to distribute revenge porn. There were 260,000 active participants in Cho’s Nth Room chats.

What happened to the perpetrators?

South Korea’s privacy laws prevent the identities of the perpetrators from being released. Due to the seriousness of the case and the outrage of South Koreans, the faces of Cho Jubin and Moon Hyung-wook were revealed to the public.

Cho Jubin was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Moon Hyung-wook, on the other hand, was sentenced to 34 years in prison with 30 years of electronic bond. The South Korean government plans to financially compensate the victims with treatment, education and living expenses.

Although the main perpetrators have been caught, many participants are still at large. Despite this shocking controversy, no new laws or policies have been passed to strengthen the protection of minors and women in online spaces. Journalists in South Korea are still unsafe when reporting on sexual crimes, as in the case of the Burning Sun scandal.

As the case of the second Nth Room makes waves on social media, the South Korean government must take urgent action to address the issue.