Sex and truth

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, November 28, 2023 | 21:52

Editor’s Note

Sex and truth

Posted : 2013-03-27 17:24

Updated : 2013-03-27 17:24

By Oh Young-jin

Viewing the country's ongoing sex scandals, I am reminded of the case of North Korea.

I am not promoting a conspiracy theory such as on the Fox TV series "24," or plugging lewd scenes from Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."

I am suggesting the two diametrically different cases are tied by one common thing ― the absence of truth.

I said sex scandals because there are two underway but the latest appears to be so sensational as to overshadow the first.

To recap, the first involves popular actor Park Si-hoo, a late bloomer at age 36, whose career was peaking with a series of appearances in hit TV dramas targeting female viewers.

Park is accused of raping an aspiring actress, while he claims they had consensual sex.

The rumor mills got busy, one side arguing Park was set up by a former agent who was trying to get even with Park for deserting him.

By the time the Park case captured the imagination of the nation, another sex scandal of a bigger scale had blown up.

Before attention moved to this second scandal, Park's case came to the stage when both accused and accuser underwent lie detector tests. Some rumors said both failed but Park was upset because the media paid attention only to his failure.

Another interesting element to this case was the two's messages traded on free-messaging service Kakao Talk. If, at this point, you decide, "If I were Park, I wouldn't have used Kakao before committing a crime of passion, or would refrain from drinking for romance," please read on.

Park's case quickly sank below the public radar because the second case was incomparably bigger on two accounts. It was not simply physical contact between two consenting adults. Reports have it an orgy was held that involved a bigger cast, possibly including a vice justice minister and other dignitaries.

A key character in this drama-like episode was quoted as saying, "If the list leaked, the current administration would be shaken to its foundation."

In fact, the vice justice minister resigned, raising questions not only about the ethical and moral standards of this administration but its core competencies to govern. Of course, I neither think nor hope it will threaten the Park Geun-hye government. The minister who resigned did not admit he was a person captured on a video of the alleged orgy.

The National Forensic Service, the state-run CSI, said the video in its custody was a re-recorded version so it couldn't be 100 percent sure the man pictured was the former minister. Perhaps newspapers who published his photos with a definite attribution of guilt will be up for a major defamation suit.

Making this scandal even saucier are allegations that a broker who represented several construction firms was at the center of the sex parties, inviting those in influential positions to an out-of-the-way retreat to engage in orgies.

If you feel indignant about the lack of noblesse oblige shown here, please stop reading now.

From this point on, only those who think, "If I were in a similar situation, I would go HD for recording," are invited to proceed.

You may ask where North Korea fits in.

Frankly, almost nowhere.

The introduction of this column was a plot aimed at luring as many as from among you to read on.

But don't feel as if you, who have read this far, were victims of a nasty Ponzi scheme because you chose to stay and read this far. Remember, I gave two disclaimers by which you were asked to make up your mind.

The nature of those questions tested whether you were really interested in knowing the truth.

But we don't need to be disheartened because we know we deep inside we all have an element of both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On one hand, we want to know the truth while, on the other, we are inevitably distracted by kitschy untruths.

For those who are still resentful, here is one thing for consolation, which, with a little stretch, may make good on the promise of this column's introduction, tying the sex scandals in the South with North Korea.

The common denominator indicates that truth doesn't necessarily prevail, even eventually.

The North has sustained itself on lies for more than half a century, surpassing all predictions about its early demise. Judging by our own experiences, the truth may never be uncovered about these sex scandals or, by the time the truth is uncovered, few will pay attention. Can we say a lie can prevail over the truth? I hope against hope that it can't.