Inside Korea's largest Telegram sex abuse ring: How victims became perpetrators

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A random Telegram message arrives from a stranger.

“Hi. Someone is posting your picture and phone number in our channel. I think your information has been leaked. You should talk to this person.”

The stranger, seemingly helpful, asks the user to tap “Add Contact.” But as soon as the button is pressed, the user's phone number is shared — and a digital manhunt begins. With only that number, perpetrators scour social media accounts and KakaoTalk to identify the victim’s name, friends and family.

Then, without warning, the stranger turns hostile.

“I can post your personal information online. I can call your family, your school and your workplace.”

The threats grow more menacing.

“I can make you quit school. I can make it impossible for you to leave your home.”

For the victim, it marked the beginning of a long campaign of intimidation.

Telegram messages sent by Kim Nok-wan and members of his criminal ring urge a victim to tap the “Add Contact” button. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

In a sudden turn, victims were forced to choose between two options: ignore the threat and risk having their names and faces shared online and with people they knew, or follow instructions from a man nicknamed “Pastor.” Some chose to comply.

They were told to write diaries, report to the “Pastor” every morning when they wake up and update him on their whereabouts throughout the day. They were also forced to contact him every hour and write letters of reflection about what they had supposedly done wrong.

Failure to follow the rules meant being “stuffed” — having their names, photos of their faces and bodies, social media accounts and sexually exploitative or fabricated images uploaded to Telegram channels. Once trapped inside, there was virtually no way out.

The only way out, according to the Pastor, was to bring in 10 more victims. That was the price of leaving “Vigilante,” the Telegram-based sexual exploitation chatroom also known as “Moksa-bang,” or the Pastor’s Room. Victims, desperate to escape, brought in other victims. A vicious cycle was created, and a pyramid was built.

Telegram messages sent by Kim Nok-wan and members of his criminal ring to a victim. In one exchange, an "evangelist" matter-of-factly tells the victim that the perpetrators were once in the same position before pressing the victim to comply. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

Turning victims into "one of us"

The cybercrime ring was not a mere chatroom, but a miniature society with structured classes forming a hierarchy. At the lower end were trainee evangelists, followed by junior and then senior evangelists. At the very top sat a person known as Kim Nok-wan — the “Pastor” and the mastermind of the entire scheme.

Evangelists were tasked with recruiting new victims and bringing them to Kim. They were also responsible for coercing victims lured into the chatroom and producing sexual exploitation material. Senior evangelists were charged with handing out instructions and teaching new evangelists how to recruit more victims.

It was a calculated tactic to entrench victims once they were brought into the chatroom. New people began as trainee evangelists, a title given to those who had yet to bring in a new victim. They moved up the ranks as they recruited more victims and carried out orders. Slowly, the titles and structure worked to turn victims, who had been forced into the Telegram channel under threats that their pictures and names would be exposed online, into abusers who threatened others and committed crimes.

A police investigation led to the arrest of 14 members of the criminal ring "Vigilante." Ten of them were teenagers, with the youngest just 15 years old. Most had once been victims themselves, coerced into the chatroom before becoming members of the organization.

Over nearly five years, from May 2020 to January last year, the group produced 1,381 pieces of sexual exploitation material and distributed another 425, according to police. They were taken into custody on charges of producing and distributing sexual exploitation material, illegally filmed videos and fabricated images, as well as threatening and coercing victims.

Kim Nok-wan is arrested by police. Kim is accused of producing sexual exploitation material and sexually assaulting 234 victims over five years from May 2020 to January last year. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

Posing as 2 people

The strangeness did not end there. Police charged Kim in 10 rape cases, including three in which victims were injured. He also reportedly filmed the assaults and stored hundreds of videos.

Telegram messages sent by Kim Nok-wan and members of his criminal ring to a victim force the victim to choose between following their orders or being “stuffed” online. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

The investigation found that Kim posed as two different people. In the Telegram chatroom, he acted as the Pastor, telling victims they could leave the ring only if they entered into a relationship with a person he designated. He then appeared before the victims as that very person, sexually abusing victims who had already been psychologically cornered by the same man online. The victims included minors aged 14 and 15. Even after investigators caught some accomplices and the net began to close in, Kim continued committing crimes by threatening new victims.

The court said in its ruling that Kim called victims to motels, raped them and filmed the assaults to produce sexual exploitation material. It also noted that he injured victims during the crimes and inflicted severe psychological suffering.

“The defendant’s crimes trampled on human dignity and value, amounting to anti-human rights crimes,” the court said in the ruling.

Telegram messages sent by Kim Nok-wan and members of his criminal ring to a victim. They coerce the victim into following sexual instructions. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

Larger Than the "Nth Room" Case

The “Vigilante” case grew into one of the largest cases of its kind in Korea.

Investigators initially identified 234 victims. But as the probe deepened, case records, seized materials and additional testimony brought previously hidden crimes to light.

The ring also resisted, keeping victims from leaving by holding their personal information over them, and continued turning victims into abusers and dragging in new victims even as investigators closed in.

Only in the later stages of the investigation did police realize that Kim had been an unidentified accomplice in an earlier case. A separate probe uncovered 17 additional victims, bringing the total number of victims to 261 — more than three times the 73 victims in the “Nth Room” case, the Telegram-based sexual exploitation ring that shook Korea years earlier.

Even after the investigation ended, victims continued to live in fear, as the channels used to “stuff” victims by posting their real names and personal information remained active. After receiving complaints from victims, authorities moved to block access to the channels, delete illegal videos and provide psychological counseling.

Electronic devices used by Kim Nok-wan / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

Life sentence upheld on appeal

Kim Nok-wan was sentenced to life in prison in both his first and appeals trials.

On April 29, the Seoul High Court’s Criminal Division 8, led by Judge Kim Sung-soo, upheld a life sentence for Kim and ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring device for 30 years. The court also ordered the disclosure and notification of his personal information for 10 years and barred him from working at institutions related to children, teenagers or people with disabilities for 10 years.

“The defendant committed crimes continuously over about four years and five months, and the number of charges recognized as guilty alone stands at 25,” the court said. “He threatened victims and psychologically controlled them by using the fact that he possessed their sexual exploitation material. His perverse and sadistic acts undoubtedly left victims with lifelong shame and humiliation.”

The rulings from Kim’s first and second trials listed 28 charges, ranging from organizing a criminal group and producing and distributing sexual exploitation material to rape and rape resulting in injury. The list of charges alone ran longer than a page of A4 paper.

“The defendant continued living an ordinary life as an office worker with his family, while maintaining a completely opposite life of crime for years,” the court said. “Given the sadistic and cruel nature of the crimes against the victims, the long period of offending and the unrecovered damage, it is questionable whether he feels genuine remorse.”

On the day of the appeals ruling, Kim entered the courtroom in a wheelchair. When the presiding judge asked whether it was difficult for him to stand for long, he briefly answered, “Yes.”

Throughout the roughly 30-minute sentencing, Kim remained seated as he listened to the ruling against him. He stood only briefly when the sentence was read out. He did not lower his head or shed tears, only looking toward the gallery with a face mask on.

Kim later appealed the ruling.

The personal information of Kim Nok-wan, accused of producing sexual exploitation material or sexually assaulting 234 victims over five years from May 2020 to January last year, has been disclosed. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.