Rotten Mango - #248: Korean Female Air Force Sergeant Takes Her Own Life On Her Wedding Day - Case of Lee Yeram

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Yeram’s wedding day was almost perfect. It was one of the happiest days of her life in a very long time. She spent the day grabbing fast food with her new husband, unpacking their newlywed house, and calling each other “wife” and “husband.” Later that night, on their wedding night, Lee Yeram would take her own life. Why? Why would she do this after one of the happiest moments of her life? Just 81 days prior, she was sexually assaulted by her Air Force senior sergeant. This case would become one of South Korea’s most talked about cases with layers of corruption. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. But it being bad but it was E Yadam's wedding day. I'm gonna call her Yadam which is her name

and they had just signed the marriage license. Afterwards, they come home, they start unpacking their newlywed house and I mean like everything's falling into place. They're in love, they come home, they start unpacking their newlywed house. And I mean, like everything's falling into place. They're in love, they're going to be stationed at the same South Korean Air Force Base. Every part of that day was perfect. The fact that they got fast food after they got married. The fact that they were joking around, poking fun at each other, calling each other husband and wife all day while they're unpacking. The fact that he promised her, as her husband,

to love and to cherish her, but more importantly, she made him promise to buy her pizza tomorrow, though it's his first husbandly duty for her. Every single thing about the day was perfect until she was found dead. E. Edm would take her own life, the day after her wedding. This is 81 Days after she was sexually assaulted by a senior ranking officer in the South Korean Air Force. Her father would later say, my daughter wasn't killed by her assultor. She was killed by the male-dominated Korean military that does not treat women as colleagues. It's the military system that punishes victims of sexual assault and not the perpetrators that killed my daughter.

As always, full show notes are going to be available at RottenManglePodcast.com. This is a heavy case, so content warning, there's talks of assault and of suicide. So with that being said, let's get into it. In the summer of 2021, a female Air Force sergeant sexual assault was caught on camera and nobody did anything about it. Instead, they interrogated the victim. They forced her to take a lie detector test to make sure that she wasn't lying about the assault. And 81 days later, she was found dead. E-R-M was born in 1998, so she's Gen Z. She would have been 25 years old today. She died when she was 23 years old. She was a very disciplined kid from the get-go. I couldn't find too much about her childhood. From what I could tell, she spent all of her childhood just studying.

She has a brother, an older brother, and two parents, super close family. Like they're so tight-knit. She knew what she wanted to do with the rest of her life since she's in middle school. She wanted to join the Air Force in the South Korean military. That's her career path. So in Korea, they have these specialized high schools. They're like the Western equivalent to vocational schools where you basically go to high school to study what you plan on doing in college and then later your job. So it starts in high school. You need to know what you want to do with the rest of your life in middle school. Practically every educational field has high schools for these types of studies. Fashion students can go to fashion schools for high school. You can go to like a music school

in high school. Even middle schoolers who are like, I'm going to grow up and be involved in foreign affairs. They have a high school for that. Foreign affairs. Basically, university majors, but in high school. And of course, some of these schools are easier to get into than others, but yet I'm wanted to go to an aviation science school. This is not only incredibly difficult to get into, but to excel at once you're admitted,

it's nearly impossible. And it's also a heavily male dominated field where she has to fight tooth and nail to just be even recognized and respected. Yet I'm wanted to be in the Air Force since basically a kid. And it wasn't one of those like, ooh, one day, one day.

She actually starts putting the work since she's a kid. And this is so pertinent because the Air Force would essentially turn their backs on her when she needed them the most. She gets into this incredibly difficult high school for aviation and even then she really stood out from the crowd. The competition is cutthroat in these types of schools but she graduates gets accepted

into the Air Force which I believe is one of the harder branches in the South Korean military to get into. So I believe it's comparable to the US where the Air Force acceptance rates are a bit higher. And in 2020, after putting in all of this work, she gets promoted to being a sergeant first class position in the Air Force's 20th fighter wing. You're like, what is this even mean, right? I didn't know. But I'm going to get to all of it. Everyone who knew Yeram said that this was so well deserved, this promotion, she worked hard for it. Everyone who knew Yeram said that this was so well-deserved, this promotion, she worked hard for it, she was qualified overqualified even, you know, and very likable amongst her colleagues, which sounds like something that everyone says about people who pass too early. But let me explain,

let me explain. Even juniors in the Air Force really liked Yeram. I know his face is like, okay, cool. What does that even mean? Like, why does that matter? We've kind of covered this in the Air Force really like Tieda. I know his face is like, okay, cool. What does that even mean? And like, why does that matter? We've kind of covered this in the last episode of Korean Bullying. But the Korean social hierarchy of respecting elders does not just apply to respecting your parents or random like 50 year olds or grandparents,

your 90 year old grandma. You have to show respect to students in school that are a year older than you. In some extreme cases, you could be born February of 2000. If the other person is born November of 1999, they are your elder. Because it's the, they go by year. Some schools go by month, some go by years. You have to show respect to them.

And what does that even mean? You have to use honorific language. For example, you can say thank you in many ways in Korean. The casual way I would say it to you is like, Oh, Kumawa, which is like thanks, right? But when you say it to an elder, a senior, you have to say, Thank you.

Completely different. It's much more respectful. It's a clear sign of what's going on. And typically, you can only drop these honorifics if you become really close to that person or if they tell you to drop it. But there's like a whole other language. I mean, even when you're drinking alcohol with your elders, and I've talked to him about this, people who are even a year or two older than you, you can't take a shot while you're looking at them. You have to turn to the side and drink your alcohol like this.

I don't know why, it's a sign of respect. So this is how intense it is in the everyday Korean culture, in the everyday Korean life. Imagine how it is inside the military. Because even in the US, the military rankings you don't fork with that. Those are some intense seniority hierarchy rankings right there. And this is probably a good time to mention that the hierarchy system in South Korea is actually not based on age. It's weird. I know.

So what? Everywhere else in South Korea, it's based on age, the hierarchy. It's completely different in the military. It's even more complicated. So in the US, you know how every military, or every division of the military, they have their own ranking system.

And if you're a rank above, then you're the senior to this junior. But in South Korea, this rank in and of itself has a sub-rank. And it's not based on age, it's based on when you got to the base. So if I've been at the base for a year and you just got to the base,

I'm automatically your senior, even though technically we are the same classified rank. Yeah. But then if I'm here and you are a rank below me and you've been at this base 10 years longer than me, you're still my junior because you're still a rank below me. Okay, that makes sense, quite good. It kind of makes sense,

but it just adds a layer of complexity to this because you have to remember whenever everybody got to base. And then every time you meet someone, you have to verify. Yes, you'd be like, when did you get here? When did you get here? When did you get here? It's just, I don't know why, you have to verify. Yes, you'd be like, when did you get here? When did you get here? When did you get here? It's just, I don't know why.

It's so complicated. Stressful. Very stressful, okay? But yeah, there's an added layer of just complexity. And seniority in every sense of these words, it's not a cute little, hi hi ha ha, like I'm your opa, no, you literally have to treat this person like your senior.

You're gonna treat people in the same rank as you, but got here a month later, like your junior. And if not, you'll probably face administrative punishment of some sort. You'll be considered difficult rebellious and very not a good worker. Most likely your military career will be short and unsuccessful unless you go through with these hierarchy norms. This is gonna be very, very important later. But all this to say, no junior really ever likes their seniors.

Like not a single one. The hierarchy system literally makes it almost impossible for juniors to get along with their seniors. So the fact that all of Yadam's juniors have nothing but kind words to say, that is a lot. Not many people can say that. They all said she was really good at her job, like exceptionally good.

And on top of that, she never used her position as a senior over us to force us to do part of her work or force us to run errands for her. She was a very fair person. So we really respected her. Now add to that, there is even what they call reservists. These are soldiers that have already been discharged from the army, and they, so that she was an elite soldier who worked hard every second that she was on base.

She took her career seriously, and if there was a difficult task on base that nobody else wanted to do, she was going to do it. Like she's going to step up to the plate and volunteer. Which like fine, okay, that sounds nice. But when you look at the army politics, reservists are known for being some of the most cutthroat, brutally critical people towards active duty army members or military members because they're not playing military politics anymore. They don't care if they're being rude. In fact, it's almost like, it's almost that attitude of like, I've been there. I went through the hardships. I don't have to

say anything nice about you. But all of them have nothing but nice things to say about her. So again, very good hard worker. Keep all of these in mind because people are going to try to slander her name and run her through the mud very, very soon. Back to the story. So E. Adam-E-R-M was a sergeant first class. And here's a chart if you're interested in all the ranks of these people, because it does become important later. But the very bottom of the chart, if you're interested, you have privates.

So South Korea has mandatory two-year enlistment in the army for all men. And you start as a private. You work your way all the way up to a sergeant. That takes you two years. But those who choose the military as a private. You work your way all the way up to a sergeant. That takes you two years. But those who choose the military as a career or continue to pursue their lives in the military after that mandatory two-year enlistment or women who have to join and go through the same rankings, you get promoted to staff sergeant, then sergeant first class. So these are really high-up rankings.

These are people who know what they're doing. You really just need to keep a few of these ranks in mind. And what is her rank? She's sergeant Class. Oh okay she already went up a couple. Yes. Great. So Iadam is Sergeant First Class and on May 2nd of 2021, Master Sergeant, so one rank above her, Master Sergeant, no. And just to keep things simple, in relation to Yedam, I'm just going to call people senior Dedada or junior Dedada. You don't need to know their precise ranking. You just need to know their power dynamic between them and Yedam. And it's important because some English sources, they leave out the added layer of power

imbalance in this case because some of the offenders are in the same rank as Yedam. But I guess they don't know the sub rankings. So the sub rankings are super important inside of each rank. It's very not similar to the US military ranking. So senior no quote, invited Yadam to what is called a heishik in Korea. Heishik is when you go to dinner after hours with your colleagues and your bosses. It's the bane of most people's existence. Nobody likes weissheek unless you're the boss.

You order food, drinks, and I feel like in Western work culture, that scene is like a celebration. It's a holiday party. You meet Q3 goals. So let's go out and run the tab on the company card. In Korea, it's common and it's a pretty miserable experience. You want to go home after your 12-hour workday. You don't want to sit there

and he-he-ha-ha with your managers and your bosses. It's considered a team dinner and it's a professional context, right? But it's frequent and it's an obligation. Korean companies traditionally, at least they used to, have a ton of these white shakes. With a ton of drinking. Oh, the drinking culture, and this is insane.

But recently, with concerns of forced drinking and abuse of power, Korean companies are getting a bit more careful about having these white shakes. But anyway, you get quote, invited to a white shake by a senior. And I say quotes because you can't really say no. Even if it's's not in order you can't say no without feeling anxiety that your job is now going to be at risk Because of the traditional hierarchy in Korea you can't say no to things that your superior directly orders you to do Even if it's not part of your job description even if it's after hours even if you're not on the clock Like this was there was a conversation in China too It's like one of the few things you have to know

as a beginner in the career path is, they do a lot of these team meetings and team celebration or dinners. You just can't say no. Like the first year, there's no way you can say no. If you say no once, people's gonna start talk behind you. Who does she think she is? It's not even a celebration either.

It's like a miserable dinner. Exactly. So yet she tells senior no, no, I can't go tonight because I'm working the night shift on base. Which I think about it. Your manager is like, you got to come out for dinner with us. You got to come out for drinks. Sorry, I'm working at our job.

I'm scheduled to work. How would you respond? How would your manager respond? Oh yeah, that makes sense. Sorry, sorry you can't join us. I don't know, there's a number of valid responses to this type of thing. All of them in the group of, oh okay, have a great shift. Senior No tells her, yeah, even if you have to change your shift, you better make it to dinner tonight. When she receives this quote invitation, she immediately texts her fiance. Side note, her fiance is also a fellow soldier on the same base and the same rank as her. So Sergeant First Class. And she texted him, there's a white chic with Master Sergeant No and Sergeant First Class

Jane today, crying emoji, I don't want to go dot dot dot. Wait, so she named two people? Yes. So master sergeant No is the one that invited her. He's a clear rank above her. But there is a sergeant first class Zhang, who's the same rank as her, but is still her senior. That's also attending. Why is he a senior if he's same rank? Oh, because remember the sub ranks. So he's been in the base longer than her.

Oh, just because he's been there longer. Yes, this is a thing that a lot of American sources, like English sources, leave out, is the fact that they just keep saying that he's on the same rank as her and that they're equals, but they're not. He's her senior technically. So she has to treat him with the same honorifics, the same type of like chundamar that she would to master sergeant know, even though they're the same rank class. So ridiculous. Yeah. So her text message to her fiance clearly shows that she doesn't want to be there.

And this is not a situation that she voluntarily put herself in. What's even stranger is that this dinner wasn't even particularly related to her or the Air Force at all. Senior know, the guy that was inviting all these juniors, the guy that invited her, he had a friend who recently opened up a business. And the two of them, they had plans to go out to eat,

just the two of them, to celebrate this guy's business ventures. Senior know, asked them the day of the dinner, and he's like, hey, dude, can I bring a bunch of juniors with me? The guy agrees. He's like, I mean, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I guess I'll just meet these random Air Force juniors. Yeah, fine. That's fine. So even in the world of Heishik's, this was a bit strange. Like, why? It's not even a Heishik, honestly. It's a dinner outside of the base. It's just unusual. It wasn't an Air Force get together

where everybody was a member of the Air Force. It wasn't like a company dinner with a bunch of clients like this dude that they're celebrating has nothing to do with the Air Force. Senior knows friend opening up a business has nothing to do with Yedam. What so ever. So why wish he forced to change her shift to go? It's heavily suspected and honestly kind of concluded that the senior males, so senior know and senior Zheng. Again, senior males, so senior no and senior Jang, again, senior Jang, same class, but still her senior, invited Yedam as their junior,

because they wanted to grow up at the dinner. It sounds a bit weird, but there wasn't an article published about this case, and a former Marine captain said, oftentimes these male seniors will force junior female subordinates to come to dinner or for drinks to act as quote, flowers. Flowers who serve them drinks. Basically, you are forcing this woman who has, I mean, is light years more intelligent than the rest of these men at

this dinner and forcing her to just pour drinks all night so that they can what feel macho. Even if the woman feel disgusted he said they have to swallow their pride and do it because these guys have the power to affect their promotions and your overall career and this isn't just in the military this frequently happens in company settings as well. That's so fucked up like you can see that they're already treating her with so much gross intention right so when the opportunity comes, I don't see any of them whatever promote her based on her work. Yes. Because they still want her to be a junior to them. So that they can force her to do these things. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is the harsh reality of

a female soldier in the Korean military. And like honestly, just women in the workforce in South Korea too. And that's exactly why Yedam was forced to change her shift and show up at the party. There's not actually any details, at least, public details on what happened during the dinner itself, but I think we can safely assume that Yedam did not have a great time. Given the circumstances of her being forced to attend,

just to entertain her male seniors and colleagues, I don't think she's having a blast. The dinner ends at around 11 p.m. and this is when everything starts to get so shady. It really starts to fall apart. I think every single decision made by some of these male seniors, to me, it just reeks of suspiciousness, of intent, at least in my personal opinion. I mean, just hear me out. The first being that this dinner in and of itself was illegal. This is in 2021. Korea, heavy COVID lockdowns. Okay, it's not nearly as bad as how it was in 2020 where everyone was forced to stay home, but there were pretty strict restrictions on how many

people could meet up at once, how many people could gather and grab drinks or dinner at once, and the loss that you can have a get together with maximum of five people. But there were more than five people at the dinner. Meaning this gathering in and of itself was, again, illegal. This is so important later and it just adds to the unusualness of everything. The next unusual thing was who took them all home. These types of dinners are known for everyone getting drunk. Seniors will force juniors to take shot after shot of alcohol and they use the excuse

that they're trying to teach them how to grow up or the excuse that if you don't take another shot with your senior, then you're basically disrespecting them. You're letting them drink alone, which is disrespectful. They use these sad excuses and throw them around to make you get wasted. That's pretty much it, so they can probably take advantage of you. So if most of them are drunk, how do they get home? Surely Air Force agents are not drinking and driving, right? In Korea, taxis are everywhere.

Like at all times of the night, especially to make sure that you get home after these waste leaks. That's how common these are. But more than that, there is even a service called Teddyunjan. I don't know if other countries have this, but I just remember being so fascinated. But you can literally book someone to drive your car home all the way home. So if you drove your car to dinner, you don't want to abandon your car in the parking lot because what are you going to do the next day? So you get these people and it's so common, it's not like risky, like, oh my god, someone's

driving my car. And most drivers are out and available at this time. It's not even pricey. It's like getting a very affordable uber. So this is all very, very important because rather than using these readily available, very affordable, super normal services, the seniors instead, they insisted that a junior drive to the venue, not drink at all, and drive everybody home. So that's junior moon. And he was a junior to every single one there, including Yeram.

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For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No. Who's going to catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how become them.

This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your shows It's almost like the seniors did this because they know that juniors would overlook any problematic incidents or behaviors that would take place inside of a car. They would never report their seniors for anything.

In comparison, a stranger taxi driver might not care what rank of air force you are if you're doing something suspicious in the back of the car. The seniors, they insisted that yet I'm get into the car to be driven back to the base with them. There were a total of five people in this car. Junior Moon was the one driving, he was completely sober. He's the most junior level to everyone. Then in the front next to him, you have senior nose business friend, like random business dude.

And in the back was Yenam, senior Zheng, Tang Butt Zheng, and senior No. During the car ride, senior Zheng was getting way too close to him. He's starting to touch her inappropriately in a car full of people, mind you. So including his seniors. I think that's incredibly audacious, but I think it also goes to show you what the culture is. The fact that he thought this was okay to do in front of his seniors. Just think about the culture of that. Like these juniors wouldn't even dare fart in front of their seniors.

But sexual assault. That's fair game. Yet I'm trying to make conversation to get him to stop. But he doesn't. The first stop was to drop off senior no and his business friend. So they get out of the car and now the front seat, the front passenger seat opens up. And senior no urges either jang or yet I'm to come to the front seat. He's like, oh, like one of you guys sit in the front passenger seat opens up. And senior no urges either Jain or Yadam to come to the front seat. He's like, oh, like, one of you guys sit in the front,

so Moon isn't lonely driving up here basically. Like, come on, like, get in the front, get in the front. But senior Jain kept refusing and was like, no, don't worry about it. Like, we're both so comfortable back here. Speaking for the both of them. Later, senior no would claim that he doesn't remember any of this conversation because he was way too drunk.

A lot of people speculate that this was his pure acknowledgement that he knew that things were getting weird in the car and that he knew that Yadam was probably feeling incredibly uncomfortable. But again, he would later claim he had no idea what was going on. He doesn't remember a single thing about that. So he put in like 2% effort, try to acknowledge the situation, but he was like, yeah, whatever. Yeah. But the fact that he even saw that situation and was like, whatever is crazy.

Yeah. So after the two get out, we're left with driver Moon in the front, Yadam and senior Jang in the back. As the car ride goes on, senior Jang proceeds to sexually assault Yadam in the back seat of the car while junior Moon is driving. He's grobbing her chest, rubbing on her private parts, forcibly kissing her, shoving his tongue down her throat. And this next part requires a bit of context too, but in South Korea, it's illegal to not have a black box. If you're unfamiliar with those, there's not that many in the US, but a

black box is a camera that's attached to your car. It records the outside of your car, and oftentimes it records all of the audio inside and outside, since it's used as evidence-dring car accidents. And it's illegal for cars not to have a black box in South Korea. So there is audio of this assault that was caught on the camera's black box, the car's black box. So everything was heard? Yes, in the audio, you can hear yet, I'm just explicitly and clearly denying consent.

She says, can you stop touching me now? It didn't work. So she tries a stronger approach. And I think the translation, the English version of this, doesn't sound like a strong approach, but in Korean, it's very strong. It's, don't you need to see my face again at work tomorrow? So, in Korean it's like, what are you doing?

You are my senior at work. You need to face me again. What are you doing? Like, think about what you're doing. That is so sad. It didn't work. The assault continued for 24 minutes. 24 minutes. When the car finally arrives back at base, Yedam asks Junior Moon to stop the car outside the base and she said that she would walk back to her quarters from here.

The conversation is heard on the black box. Moon asks, are you sure you're going to be fine walking from here? Yes, I can. See you tomorrow. She gets out. She runs out of the car and starts going in the opposite direction of the where the car is headed. And as she's running off, she's already calling her immediate senior Sergeant First Class Kim. So this is like her immediate manager, I guess, even though they're in the same rank. Maybe he's like the top of all the Sergeant First Classes. So I imagine that he's a senior to both her and two senior Jang. Then on the black box audio, you can hear senior Jang ask Junior Moon to stop the car and

ask to be let out too. Moon again asks, are you sure? And he says, yeah, I can walk from here. As soon as he's let out, senior Jang starts running after Yadam. Practically, Chase is her all the way to the woman's quarters. And he didn't chase her to apologize, at least not initially. He first laughed in her face and told her, try and report it all you want, nothing's gonna happen.

I'm not sure if he realized how incredibly idiotic he was being, but sooner or later, he flips a switch and starts begging her to keep silent about what happened in the car. He starts begging her, trying to convince her. He even feels a strike of desperation and tells her, if you report what happened, I'm gonna kill myself. And when that didn't work, he asked, can we hug and make up? Can we hug it out? As if sexually assaulting her for 20 minutes wasn't enough,

he wanted to touch her yet again. The fact that he's begging her to keep quiet about the sexual assault, and then he's still trying to make physical passes at her throughout this conversation is astonishing. From Yadam's perspective that night, it's pretty easy to see that this guy is not going to leave her alone until she verbally convinces him that she's not going to tell anyone. She already told Sergeant Kim, so she's just trying to tell him, I'm not going to just go home, please, I'm not going to tell anybody. So she agrees. She agrees to pretend like nothing ever happened. Now mind you, he's right outside her living quarters, so just imagine the terrifying aspect

while this is all taking place. Like inside is her room with her bed. Like this is just worst case scenario. She's just doing whatever she can to get this guy to leave. Now, this is the part in horror movies where you keep holding your breath. You're like, okay, once the sun comes up, by morning everything is going to be easier. Everything is going to be brighter. It's going to be less terrifying. There's less monsters. Like the think of night is not when you want things to go down. But for Yetam, the morning was the start of another

nightmare. The next morning, Sergeant First Class Kim calls Zheng the Assaulter into his office. So remember how the first thing that she did when she got out of the car was to call her senior. Senior Kim. The next morning, senior Kim does not talk to her. He just calls the Assaulter right into his office and is like, hey, so she told me what happened last night and like, what happened last night and like, what happened last night? We don't really know what happened during this conversation, but it's been said that Zhang flat out admitted to the assault, but this is just speculation and has not been proven.

Around the same time that Zhang is being questioned by senior Kim, Yedam is called into a private meeting with Master sergeant No. The one who invited her to the damn dinner in the first place. And he knows that she was assaulted last night, like where'd had gotten around? He knows this. And he asks Yadam to not report the sexual assault

because if she does, they would all get in trouble. Why? When technically senior No could say he never knew that was gonna happen, he had already gotten out of the car by the time that most of the assault had taken place. So why was he asking her to stay quiet when he probably wouldn't even get into trouble? Because the dinner broke COVID restrictions. So the dinner party guests would probably get a slap on the rest and get into a little bit of trouble by the military for breaking the law. He said, you should stay silent about your sexual assault,

so I don't get in trouble for breaking COVID restrictions. If that's not unbelievable enough, he tells her, can you just pretend like nothing happened? Like verbatim. Can you just pretend like nothing happened? No. Just as senior Jane had asked her last night, and they say it's not all.

Yet I'm said hearing this from her senior. Senior know the one who was supposed to be the authority, the one to protect her to make sure that all the juniors underneath him were defending the country with dignity and honor. Him telling her to forget about the sexual assault was almost as bad as the sexual assault itself. She said she was floored. So just to recap everything. The next morning after her sexual assault, senior Jang, the senior who assaulted her, begged her to stay silent and threaten to kill himself as she didn't.

She reported it to their senior, senior Kim, and his way of handling the situation was bringing in the assault her and just flat out telling him, yes, so the victim told me what happened last night. Poking that they are with no intention of making sure that the two of them would even be kept apart. He literally did nothing to support Yeram in this case that's now open. Now the other senior, and even higher level senior, senior No, the one that invited her to the dinner, is bringing her in and telling her to pretend like it never happened so that none of them would be blamed for breaking COVID protocol. This is the morning after the assault, not even like 12 hours later.

I mean, literally every single person in a position of power over her that have direct control over her life and career or trying to shut her up. And just when you think it can't get worse, or even higher, it does. And even higher senior officer, chief warrant officer no.

Yeah, so there's another no, but we're just gonna call him the chief. The chief calls yet out into his office for a meeting. And after her experience so far, can you blame her? This was the smart thing to do. She decides to take the smart precaution of recording their conversation on her Apple Watch.

She goes to meet with the chief and he already knows about the assault and he too continues to tell her Don't report it. Oh my goodness The recording isn't available for us to hear but there are quotes from the conversation and the one that I really Really is gonna get to everyone This is translated, but and I quote you know in life situations like this happen How would you know? How would you know, in life, situations like this happen.

How would you know? How would you know? That's what he says to her, a sexual assault victim. He says, in life, situations like this happen. That's his way of telling her things like this happen. So it's best to let it go. He tells her that reporting a situation like this would mean that everybody involved would hurt their reputations and their positions.

And at the end, he's like a passive aggressive threat. He's like not to mention your own. Yeah, he's basically threatening her career. Yetum and her parents who knew what was going on at this point, they were steadfast in their support for Yetum. They were not backing down. She refused to comply and instead

filed an official report with the military police. So not with our seniors, but the military police. And I see that your eyebrows are raising like, this is where we get hope in the story. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Within 24 hours of the incident, she reports it to the military police. And at this point, this is so invariating, but yet I'm still had trust. She still had hope in the Air Force, the military that she had devoted practically her whole life to. She believed that this is one bad base, you know, one bad egg, and maybe a couple of senior eggs that went a little rotten too.

But at the end of the day, the Air Force is known that this is their motto, the highest power defending South Korea. I wonder if it's also like a shattering thing for her world. is known that this is their motto, the highest power defending South Korea. I wonder if it's also like a shattering thing for her world. Yes. Like your whole image of life and this, what your whole fulfillment purpose in life, you want to join the Air Force to defend the country and do good. And then this is what happened. It seems like she worked a lot very, very hard in 23 years to achieve this position that early on as a woman in a male dominated field So I mean those are that's a powerful moda. It's a bold statement to make and

This is the country and the force that she's been devoting her life to since she's been a kid So even after all of these seniors try to pressure her into not reporting her sexual assault She still believed in the Air Force after filing her official report with the military police, her dad called her and was like, are you going to be okay? Like, what's going to happen next? I'm worried about you. And she was confident and she told him, Dad, there will be action taken right away. I filed it with the military police and they told me that senior Jane will be punished. There is no way that he's getting away with what he did to me. Don't worry, Dad. everything will be dealt with and handled

in an orderly fashion. Because that's how the Air Force runs things. Yet, I'm's dad was concerned, but you know, this is his little girl, of course he's concerned. He did feel a little bit relieved by her confidence. She had just so much confidence in the process in the military police. Now, after the official report was filed,

Yadam starts receiving text messages from senior Jane, her assulter. And in the text, he's just threatening to take his own life. I mean, it's not only manipulative, but Yadam's on later said, these are threats. These are threats. There are direct threats. How are they not?

Tell me how they're not. He's texting her, I'm going to die. I want to die. He's basically telling her that if she goes through with this case, he's going to die and she will have blood on her hands. To make things worse, senior J.A.N. the Assaulter's dad started texting Yedam. Imagine being texted by your Assaulter's father, the man who raised your Assaulter. He's so pathetic. These people are so pathetic. But that, oh, just to you, hear his text messages.

The dad starts texting Yedam. My son is my only pride and joy. I'm sorry, if I had a son who assaulted anyone, you were not my pride and joy. I imagine like literally 24 hours earlier. These are people that she looks up to. Respect it. Trust it. With her life, because you're in the military, You don't just trust these people as your co-workers

or your colleagues. When you're in the military, you trust these people with your life. These are like low life. There's something like this. And then bags like a little, so pathetic. Yeah, and the dad keeps begging. He made a mistake.

He's gonna be totalless than, but not like this. Don't ruin his future. He begged, Darni, said, I just want to see my son honorably discharged. It is mind-boggling what some men compare to sexual assault. They're like, I know you've been sexually assaulted, but the priority here is not you. It's about my son being honorably discharged.

The priority is not you. It's so that I don't get trouble for breaking COVID regulations. Yeah. Like, what about our life in dreams and goals? It's outrageous. So we talked about the Korean pharmacist who did the same thing like a week ago. He kept texting his victims that he was going to jump into the Han River and take his life when they started exposing him for knowingly spreading herpes. And it's happening again in this case.

And it happens way more than we would imagine. In an interview with psychologist reviewed the case and said this is incredibly traumatizing and the reason is you know it's a bit different than being assaulted by a stranger and I'm not saying that one trauma is more than the other but when you know the assault her there's this added pressure that you feel like you're ruining their lives. You feel like you're the cause of their reputation, their struggles, their ability to feed their family. You feel like you've caused that.

You end up thinking about their situation and circumstances and their life and how they're going to recover, even though you are the one that has been assaulted. The psychologist said receiving text messages of this type from the assulter of wanting to take his life and the dad begging so pathetically, it must have put such an intense, immense, mental psychological strain on the victim. She's being re-victimized again and again. So while these text messages are coming in non-stop, not even giving her a moment to catch her breath, the military police's investigation starts by investigating Yadam.

They call Yadam in. They're like, we got your official report. So we would like to give you a lie detector test. They want to administer a polygraph on a victim of sexual assault. This opens up a whole new can of worms in what the fuck is going on right now because they administer a lie detector on the victim before they even question the assulter. They didn't even bring in Jane yet. It's pretty clear who they're investigating, and it's not senior Jane.

It's said that in the military, there's a misconception. And this is not just South Korea, by the way. I feel like a lot of these cases, people are like, oh my god, what's wrong with the South Korean government? And it's like, well, it's kind of happening everywhere. There is a misconception that seems to run deep, that women just love making sexual assaults. It's like the concept of, we're just really bored.

We're really bored trying not to die every time we have to walk through a dark parking lot. We're really bored fighting for our reproductive rights. We're just bored doing the overwhelming percentage of household domestic chores and bearing the mental load while still working on our careers. We're really bored, okay? And so for some sick twisted boring reason, we just like to report random men for fake sexual abuse claims. And I'm not saying that this never happens, but the statistics of that pretty low. And on top of that, you can investigate and find the truth but really the first step is to perform a polygraph on the victim. It's such a bizarre way

to investigate a report like this. Netizens were rightfully enraged later when this case becomes public attention especially because there was an incredibly easy way to find out if she was lying about the abuse. Ah the black box. Exactly. The car's black box. It's a legal fair card not to have it, and almost all black boxes record audio, so why would they not pull the footage right from the get-go? They could literally end the case before they even put in a hard days of work doing the bare minimum.

Like, what kind of investigators are these? Where's the CCTV evidence? Why not look there? I mean, who thinks like that? Instead of going, no, no, no, no. Why don't we instead bring some people hook them up to some machines and see if their pulses go up? The regular police department would have done that.

This is the military police. They're supposed to be more advanced. They don't ever pull the black box footage. Yet I'm with later have to personally deliver it to them. She was questioned on March 5. Zhang would not be questioned till ten full days later. Ten full days. And in the meantime, the military police did file an official document stating that they would be conducting a full-fledged investigation. But they state outright in their document that the

investigation would be done without an initial arrest or detainment. Basically, they're categorizing it as a non-arrest investigation. In this category of investigation is usually reserved for super light cases. Like someone stole my purse from the break room. They were clearly not taking this seriously. They didn't even detain Zhang immediately to bring him in for questioning. And what's wild is when they filed this document, right? They're basically categorizing her sexual assault as a non-severe case, but they decided to categorize it as that before even talking to the

assaultor, before even investigating the assaultor, or really anyone. All they did was perform a polygraph and investigated Yadam. And they said, well, it doesn't seem that serious. Forget even doing the bare minimum of detaining him and questioning the Assaulter, the military police do nothing. So Yadam is still forced to see her Assaulter every single day at work. There's even a picture of how far their living quarters were from each other. Neither were allowed to move out of their living quarters, but they were 250 meters away.

So 820 feet away from each other. Less than 900 feet away from each other. Every single day, every single night. None of the seniors were the people who knew about the assault did anything to separate them or to protect her from him on a daily basis. This is like the sloppyest investigation I've seen in a while and it's so sloppy. The fact that we're dealing with high-ranking officials of a powerful Air Force, it feels intentionally sloppy. Clearly, something fishy is going on. So Yedam personally obtains the black box footage

from the car and hands it over to the military police as evidence. Now, now they can't just turn a blind eye because there's hard, irrefutable evidence of her assault. What are they going to do now? They do the worst thing that they could possibly ever do as high ranking officials in the military, but just as decent human beings. They call Yadam's fiancee in. So these are his seniors too. They call him in. Master Sergeant, no, the guy that invited

Yadam to dinner that night invites her fiancee into his office and pressures him to go force Yadam to drop the charges. He asks, can you just convince your fiance to forgive Drang? They pled with him. Chokeyegi had your su upsurka, which is like, you can't just put it in a nice word. Like, he can't just charge a change of mind. He's literally asking the fiance of a sexual assault victim. Can you put in a good word for the assulter so that he won't face a single consequence for his actions? If that's not crazy enough, when he realized

that Yadam's fiance wasn't having it, he even slid in a threat. He said, it's not just about Jane. You know, it's about your fiance too. It's about Yadam too. If this stays on her record, she's never going to get hired by the military again. Her fiance was the only good guy in this story, really,

besides Yadam's family members. And it's insane to me. Her fiance was the only good guy in this story, really, besides Yadam's family members. And it's insane to me. Her fiance was rightfully live it after this conversation. He went and told Yadam what happened, and she said, like, he really got hurt. Which means like, really after I heard what had happened and how they had brought my fiance in and what they said, I thought the sky was falling down on me. Yedam was struggling mentally, emotionally. I mean, it's taken a heavy physical toll on her.

There is no part of her life that she could escape from this, which I think is true of most, if not all sexual assault cases. It's not like you can flip a switch in your head where you're like, okay, turn the trauma off. But for Yedam, it was hard because this is her career. She lives on base. This is her entire life, her fiancee's entire life. This is all she's known and wanted ever since she's been a kid. She's overwhelmed, stressed, traumatized, but she's also feeling really confused. And these conflicting feelings of guilt are just swarming in her. Her seniors are making her feel like she's inconveniencing everyone and

ruining lives because of what happened to her. It got to a point where Yada said she doesn't even remember what it's like to fall asleep without taking sleeping pills. She says if her day isn't jam packed with things to do and more things to do and more things to do completely exhausting herself every single day, if she has a moment, even rest or think, she would have incredibly dark thoughts. So due to all of this, yet I'm requested an official leave from the military

to get professional help for her mental health. Side note, there are two ways to take your leave in the military, and one is basically a holiday leave. Like you're going on vacation, or you're just gonna have a staycation. The other one is leaving a holiday leave. Like you're going on vacation or you're just gonna have a staycation. The other one is leaving for serious matters. Family emergencies, medical emergencies, things like that. So the military knew exactly why she was going to leave.

They knew that she was seeking out mental health help for this assault, which I think this shuts down anyone who is like, wow, women have sex with their seniors. It worked to get ahead. Wow, women lie about assault for shits and giggles because they want preferential treatment in the workplace. Her career is being torn to shreds by this incident.

She didn't even do anything wrong. She's going on leave, and during this time she has over 22 sessions with her military counselor. And it was something that her counselor believed that yet I'm probably needed closer to three months on leave just to be able to function as a normal human being. Not even to excel like she used to, but just to be not breaking down every two seconds. And it wasn't just the assault. The counselor said it was a system of seniors trying to get her to drop the charges. Even the assaulters father trying to pressure her, it caused her immense mental distress.

She was taken to the hospital at one point and diagnosed officially with anxiety disorder and insomnia. That happened in March. Now, May 15th of 2021, over a month has passed since the assault and nothing has happened to Jane, the assault or nothing. Yadam sends her a message that hints at her desire to take her own life. Yadam's mom actually came across the messages. She was alarmed, but she said Yadam took her hands in her, she said, Mom give me your hands. And she reassuringly told her, and confidently, om ma,

tazar anane, which means mom, I will not commit suicide, okay? Day 77 after her assault, Yadam was back in the military after her leave. For a week or two, she was going to be at her old base before she was finally being transferred to a new base, the 15th Special Missions Wing. This was like her fresh start, a semblance of life before everything happened, you know, right? Due to the poor handling of the case, by literally every single person involved, by the time that Yadam had transferred, everyone at her new base already knew about the assault. But what's even more shocking is that everyone at

the new base hated her for it. They branded her a drama queen because this is a male dominated field. So most of her new base colleagues, seniors, juniors, are men. They said that she was a problem starter They said that she and I quote She's just looking for people to report This is a woman who took a month of medical leave and they're like, oh, yeah, she did this for fun There were even military forum posts So all the base members would go and join their little base group chats in military forums and rumors started flying around on these online forums about Yadam.

I mean, everyone knew what was going on. On the first day, the first day at work at the new base, a colleague approached her and smirked and said, I know why you were transferred here. She was shocked, and he laughed and walked away. Almost taunting her about her sexual assault. Yet I'm went home and she told her fiance that she was being treated horribly at her new base, which is just like a huge disappointment to the both of them.

I mean, I think both of them were really holding on to the hope that once the transfer gets approved, she would start to heal. Maybe it would take months, maybe it would take years, but at least she could start that journey. That's why they believed, you know, this new base was the new start. But the Air Force continues to disappoint in this case.

She said that she was basically being bullied for being new. The even the smallest random procedures that only this specific basted, if she didn't get it without anyone even teaching her, she was yelled at, she was bullied, she was being told that she was incompetent. She was even the first week at this new base. She's dragged. She was being told that she was incompetent. She was even the first

week at this new base. She's dragged into her senior's office and her senior puts peace paper down and is like, I need you to write down every single place time and date of everywhere. The convenience store, the gas station, everywhere that you visited during your medical leave. What the fuck? Which is so utterly shocking. Like like what do you mean? They wanted her list out every single place and their excuse was, well, it's COVID policy. We need to make sure that we can track your movements while you are on medical leave to make sure that you didn't go anywhere that you could have caught COVID. Which is crazy because they have PCR tests. But for someone who has been sexually assaulted and was seeking mental health help during

medical leave, for her to be forced without her consent to write about every single time that she went to seek mental health help is like the worst thing you could do. Her first week at the new base she's just bullied completely exposed by everyone and nobody had sympathy they branded her the problem. On May 21st of 2021 she told her fiance that the stress that she was facing was just getting too much and he jumps into action. He tells her, I'm gonna move to your base.

We can be on the same base again. And if anyone tries to mess with you, like, I got you back, I'm gonna be with you, I'm gonna help you. Yeah, and within months, you know, I'm gonna support you and they're gonna forget about it, like, news moves fast. But in order to do this and to have the transfer done quickly and not months or years from now The two had to get married legally It was the only way because the military allows for spouses to request to be at the same base

And they're usually good about transferring you quickly They also allow spouses to live together and work in the same place There's just a lot of benefits. So this is the perfect plan. I mean, they were already planning on getting married. The only thing that Yadam's fiance cared about was her. And he just wanted to be where she was to help her through it. And they decide, okay, let's get married. They even went, um, rented a place near the base as their new newly wet house because she didn't want to live on base anymore. Even the day that she had to go to court to file paperwork for her marriage license, she told her base she would need the day off. They gave her a really hard time accusing her of giving everyone an inconvenience and causing

problems. They said that she can't do her job right in any aspect. She would later tell her fiancee she wanted to cry right then and there, but because she's a female soldier, there's already a stigma, so she held it in and then ran outside and cried. Day 81 after the assault, May 21st. The couple get their marriage license. And for the first time, things are looking up. Like that day that they legally got married,

Yadam is smiling, she's laughing, she's so happy, I mean, she seems so happy. They got fast food on the way home from getting married. They even start unpacking for their new house and they're joking around for a few hours. At the end of the night, Yadam's fiance now has been. Kisses her goodbye because he had to go in for his night shift on base. And he told Yadam to get some rest stop unpacking and we'll unpack together.

When he's at work, she texts him, can you send me the pictures we took earlier? And he texts her back. Sure, you pretty thing. Should I post them? And she texts him, yes. He texts her back. was the burger good today. And she says, yes, it was so good. It's so nice being home. I don't want to go back to base.

And he texts her. He, I love you, my baby. And she said, tomorrow, can you buy me? Sorry, I don't know, I'm so emotional. Okay. She texts him back. Tomorrow can you buy me kimchi and pizza and tangsuyuk. So it's like a combination people in Korea get and he texts her back. Okay, exclamation. This was the last conversation that Yadam and her husband would have because when he got home from his night shift, just 81 days after she was sexually assaulted, Yadam was found dead.

She had taken her own life. And sure she had been the one to physically take her own life, but her father said, my daughter wasn't killed by her assault. She was killed by the male-dominated Korean military that doesn't treat women as colleagues. It's the military system that punishes victims of sexual assault and not the predators that killed my daughter. I think one thing that a lot of people were kind of confused over was why did she take her life after she moved bases? Was it the assault that was the problem? Was it the reaction to the assault by her seniors that were the problem?

The bullies at the new base? Because even when she was at her old base for two months, she was working around her solter, working with her solter, around these horrible scum seniors, her life was miserable. So why did she now take her own life at this new base? Were these bullies at the new base worse than the ones before? Worse than the assultors? A psychologist stated, they believe the situation at the new base probably drove her to a breaking point, not because she was just being bullied, but what it meant and

like what it symbolized. After the assaults, Yadam suffered for two months at her old base and she even took the military leave, but she was probably hoping and praying and betting on the fact that she just has to hold out until the transfer. She just has to hold on until this moment and she can start fresh. It'll be a new place and it'll go back to normal and she can start this journey of healing. The psychologist said, as a survivor of sexual assault, this opportunity was the same as starting over. She was probably holding on to the hope that she could start over and put this all behind her one day. This might have been why she didn't take her life earlier.

However, she moved to her new base and realized, no, life is not better. And she felt like she would truly never be able to get a fresh start. This is when she really broke down. She came to her new start and she was treated even worse than her previous post and she was berated, exposed, treated terribly because everyone knew she was sexually assaulted. Her new start made it impossible. And the only way out in her eyes at the time was death. That's what the psychologist said. With Yetam's death, there were now more questions, honestly.

Like, questions I think people would later be hard pressed to ignore. The main ones being, where is Jain and how's the investigation going? Jain was fine. He's alive, on base, living life is normal. Months had passed since the assault. They had black box, concrete audio evidence from the car. They knew yet I was telling the truth. Why would this investigation take months?

Why is Jain still walking around free? According to a military prosecutor who is not involved in this case, they said that the military typically has protocols for cases like this. So this is weird, this is abnormal. He said, the investigative team, the actual investigators, they get 10 days.

They investigate, they pass it on to the military prosecutor, so like the lawyers, they get 20 days. So the whole investigation should be wrapped up in a month. Okay, great, but now it's been 81 days. Why did you wait till Yadam is dead and the whole country is angry for you to do something? Yadam's family said for two months they heard nothing about this investigation. They had kept following up on it. Nothing.

According to the military prosecutors, he believes that the military investigators were probably stalling the case to create more time from the incident. And it would mean that they could chalk things up to, you know, details being blurry, memories being fogged up by witnesses, which would buy time and let the perpetrator off easy. That's typically why investigations like this have protocols for the military police to act within 30 days Because the longer the investigation stalls the only person it hurts is the victim So it's pretty crystal clear right now that not a single person in power performed their duties at the bare minimum

Nobody did their jobs not a single person Later congressman Shin asked the interesting question. I mean not a single person. Later, congressman Shen asked the interesting question. I mean, not a single person did their job? Is it even possible for every single person in these levels of power to be this incompetent? Meaning, it's not incompetency. Like, this is... You're doing this on purpose. Every single person involved knowingly is stalling.

It seems coordinated. It sounds like a conspiracy, but that's what it seems like. The military system clearly does not care for sexual assault victims. Even her comrades at her new base, or even her old ones, not a single person supported her in getting justice. In fact, all of them try to convince her to pretend like it never happened.

These are people that she probably trusted with her life. They're in the military fighting for their country and they can't even fight for a victim of sexual assault. Sorry, but that's not who I would want to defend the country. And to really show you how bad it is, this wasn't even the first time Yadam was sexually assaulted or harassed at this particular base.

She was sexually harassed on two separate occasions before this. This was not even an isolated event. The first time she was sexually harassed was in 2019. Yetam reported that a chief from a different base had invited her to Oheshik. She was forced to go and he was trying to touch her during the entire dinner. She reported this to Master Sergeant No, the guy that invited her to this dinner. He told her, well, if you report the guy,

he's getting a discharge. And he won't even make half of his yearly salary. I'm so confused how that's even, okay. So Yerem was forced to let it go. The next year in 2020 at a karaoke bar after work, the same chief No, who's her boss, tried to wrap his arms around her and she told him to stop and he did not.

She reported this at her base, but did not take it any further due to being pressured to drop the issue. Then in 2021, with senior Jang, this incident was the third time she was sexually harassed and or assaulted by someone who was her senior, and less than a hundred days. This is the first time she's officially filed a report with the military police. And less than a hundred days later, she's found dead. Her mom said, the law is so cold to my daughter who is a victim yet so

warm to the Assault her. And it's clear. Yadam's case is just one of hundreds of sexual assault cases reported by soldiers each year. According to a Korean lawyer, lawyer Kwan In-sulk, less than 40% of these perpetrators face charges. And over 40% were given shortened sentences and were basically allowed to walk free. Probation. Slap on the wrist. And that's just dealing with the cases that are officially reported.

And think about it. For Yadam, only one of three of her cases were officially reported, so just think about all the unreported cases. And like, why do women have to die for sexual assaults to be taken seriously? After Yadam passed, the investigation gets even sketchier. The military police changed their investigation into the case, and now they deemed it an intense investigation after she passed. But all they did was find evidence that Yadam's death

was a suicide, which that's not even what you're investigating right now anyway. So they're still trying to get away with this, okay? They gather all the evidence that this is a suicide, and they submit it and pat themselves on the back. I'm sorry, nobody's even arguing that. They went into full detail about her name, her personal information, even the manner of death, everything.

And then, a second report was filed by the military police chief himself, the highest person in the military police, alongside the Air Force Police Chief of Staff, one of the highest positions in all of the Air Force, not just this base, but all of the Air Force. They together stated that the cause of Yadam's death was due to the sexual assault case, along with the mental stress caused by the neglectful handling of her case. So this is like the only report that's good, right?

They said that they had enough evidence that this death was the direct cause of the assault and a full fledged investigation would be launched. So a lot of people are getting hope about this. Yet, I'm family are getting hope. And the government wanted one final report. So the Air Force has to submit one final report to the government saying, this is how we handled the investigation.

This is our final conclusion end of story. Investigation closed. This is not that report. Okay. This is just a midway report, like a status report. Okay, fine, right? At least people are doing their jobs. The very last report that is submitted to the official government, the one that's basically closing this case, this document has no mention of her sexual assault. This document has no mention of her sexual assault. In fact, the whole document is living in its own reality. That is the only way I can even describe it. The document fabricated, light, straight up, light, slandered.

I mean, I don't know what word you want to call it. Reactions from Yetam's parents. Stating that her parents were puzzled on why their daughter would take her own life. So they file a mid report and then that stays in the Air Force. Okay. And then they found out about some information as they dig deeper. They're like, let's just change the whole story. Yeah. And this is the only one that the government's going to see about an Air Force active duty members death. So just give them this fake report. And hopefully the government won't care.

Hopefully the government will be like, yes, suicides are common, not common, but they happen. That's what they were hoping. Yeah, they said that the parents were puzzled on why their daughter would take her own life. When in fact, they knew they knew exactly why Yadam had taken her own life. I mean, they knew. Another weird thing was that the investigation document heavily suspects Yadam had taken her own life. I mean, they knew. Another weird thing was that the investigation document heavily suspects Yedam's newly wet husband

as being suspicious, stating that he was the last one to see her alive before she died. They said that they investigated if the husband killed her basically. This is the same investigation team that already knew about her assault, basically didn't know anything about it, and also knew that Yedam's now husband

was called in by his seniors to try and get Yadam to drop the sexual assault charges. But they're like, yeah, we thought he was kind of suspicious. It seems like with this final document that was submitted to the official government, they were trying to cover it up, everything. They were trying to cover up her death, cover up the assault, cover their own asses. Because now it's not just about Zheng. Like Zheng is not this crazy important person in the military.

They're not protecting Zheng. They're protecting Zheng's senior and his senior senior and his senior senior senior because all of them fucked up the investigation. Eventually, they were protecting their own reputation as an air force as a whole. It's not even about Zheng anymore. Yedam's family were so outraged, they refused to acknowledge this document, and they were set that the world needs to know what truly happened to their daughter. May 31st, news starts picking up the story of what happened to

Yedam and Yedam's death. And only then was senior Jenga fishly questioned. Once the news got involved. Once netizens got involved, once media got involved. The story gained so much traction. June 1st, Yadam's parents demanded justice and uploaded a petition to the Blue House website. They gained over 400,000 signatures instantly, which is, I believe it's one of the most signed petitions in South Korea because

South Korea I think there's only like 40 million people in the country. It's hard to get these petition signatures 400,000 it was a story Every single Korean no matter their gender no matter if they were military or not It's so mind-boggling They're like we don't want these people to represent our country that's disgusting. Yet, um, father demanded that there be a new investigation separate from the corrupt military police investigation. So this prompted the government to respond because people are mad.

They launched a detailed 100-day investigation by a special government council. So unrelated to the military police. And after 100 days, five people were indicted and charged with their crimes. So finally, let's start with Zheng, the Assaulter. He went to trial August 2021, and he straight up admitted to the Assault because there's so much evidence against him. But he denied his other charges. He denied that he was retaliating against Yedam and threatening her. Remember all those messages of him threatening to take his own life?

His lawyer tried to argue, that wasn't a threat to Yedam, that was a threat to his own life. Technically, you could argue that my client was threatening himself. Yedam's father was disgusted by this and he screamed in court. Just save him. Everybody just say that Jang is innocent and let him go. I'll take care of it myself.

Yadam's father even threw a water bottle at Jang and screamed at him for killing his daughter. Yadam's mother testified during trial and she said, every night I have nightmares about hanging out of a helicopter holding onto a rope and I'm searching for my daughter in the mountains. She then turned to Jang and asked, searching for my daughter in the mountains. She then turned to Jane and asked, I heard that you bothered my daughter on a regular basis. What did you hate about her so much to do that to her? Yadam's mom also talked about how Yadam tried to reassure her

that she wouldn't take her own life. Her mom blames herself. She said that she should have listened to her daughter more carefully. She should have tried to find out if she was thinking these dark thoughts again, and she said that she feels guilt listened to her daughter more carefully. She should have tried to find out if she was thinking these dark thoughts again, and she said that she feels guilt for not protecting her daughter. And while she's talking about this, she actually goes into so much distress that she ends up

fainting and has to be rushed to the hospital. Yadam's brother ended up attending the trial as well, and he was expelled from court pretty quickly because he tried to attack Jane. There were other key moments in the trial like after Yenam got out of the car that night of the assault, the judge asked Jane why he ran after her. If you're not gonna threaten her,

why'd you run after her? And he held the audacity to say, it was late at night, I was worried about her, so I followed her. He said he did it because he was worried about her, not to threaten her. He also claimed he kept reaching out to her over and over again when she told him to stop because he felt like his apology wasn't enough so he just wanted to keep apologizing.

Basically saying that him telling her that he wanted to kill himself repeatedly wasn't a threat, it was how sorry he was, how apologetic and remorseful he was. Yiddam's family were angry over these claims. The assultor is talking likeetic and remorseful he was. Yiddams family were angry over these claims. The Assalter is talking like he's remorseful. He only remembers parts that are favorable to him. Like, how can you be an Assalter and still try to paint yourself as a nice guy? It's horrendous.

The military prosecutors demanded 15 years in jail for J.A.E.E. for his crimes, which I hardly consider enough, but in the end, he was given nine years in prison. He was found guilty of the sexual assault and harassment, for J.A.G.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E Adam's family, instead of giving them 15 years, he lowered the nine-year sentence to seven. What the fuck? The judge argued that because Jane was apologetic and tried to apologize to the victim over text message multiple times for his crimes, that should be taken into consideration. They're like, yeah, he was just so distraught over what he did.

He wanted to end his life. They're genuinely treating it as, that's how remorseful he was just so distraught over what he did. He wanted to end his life like they're genuinely treating it as That's how remorseful he was and not as pure manipulation and threats Okay, the family appealed again and the case was taken to the Supreme Court where they upheld the sentence of seven years Now let's talk about the chief or an officer no So not the guy that invited her to the dinner, but the top head He was also the one that was accused of sexually harassing her before, like a year ago. Yeah, a year before.

He denied all the allegations against him, and he literally whined to reporter saying he doesn't even know why he's at trial. To that I would say, don't be such a baby. You know, in life, situations like this happen. He was given seven years, same as Chang, and the judge said it's because chief no technically didn't assault her. He sexually harassed her, but he doesn't even realize how big his own personal offense in this case is and the handling of the investigation. He doesn't even

recognize where he messed up, so they can't even be compassionate with his sentence. Later, that was changed to two years in prison, only two years, which side note, he would later be found dead in his prison cell a year after being imprisoned. It's a mystery as to why he died. There are no detailed public reports on his death, no reports on even the cause of death. And to that, I say, I hope someone somewhere

is conducting an investigation as thorough and as just as he did for Yidam. A few other officials were involved in the investigation that were also punished. They all got about six to eight months in prison. Mainly, they were part of the military police that lied about the parents saying that they have no idea why Yidam would take her own life.

They straight up lied about what the victim's parents had said in an official document. This case, I think, it really shed light on just a lot of big issues, not just in Korea, but everywhere. It started a lot of conversations on male-dominated fields and systems where boys' clubs still seem to be running rampant. The fact that someone actually went to jail is a step in the right direction given that so many sexual assaulters have been found innocent or never even tried, so it's good, but

it's that it feels like a final slap in the face. This case is now closed, but it's just really unfair. She was only 23 when she died, and she gave her whole life to the Air Force. I can't help but think that if the Air Force had handled this case properly, that maybe Yedam would still be with us. I'm gonna link a song Yedam's brother actually made it for her after her death and it's a beautiful song. I was actually confused.

I was like, wait, did he really make this song? It's called I remember. He was asked about it and how it was made and what he had done for it and he said, yes, did you compose and write the song yourself? He said, yes, I wrote, composed, arranged, and played the bass for the song. The singing, however, was done by a good friend of mine who knows my sister well.

Since middle school, this friend and I had been planning on making music together. Not that good at singing, though, so. But I wanted to have someone who knew my sister that would sing it. So I asked my friend. At the end of the song, the brother and the parents, they all, with their voices, they leave a message for Yadam.

And the brother says, little sister, hindaroti, which means it's been hard, right? Let's meet each other again, later, and play again. I love you. Yadam's dad also says, are you mad? Let's meet each other again, later, and play again. I love you. Yadam's dad also says, Are you mad? Your mother and I and your brother will always be with you for all of eternity.

Will I be reunited in heaven? My pretty, pretty daughter. Yadam's mom says, My beautiful daughter, thank you so much for being mine. Let's meet again in that very special place. I love you. And at the end they say, we will always remember you. 짠 룸한 추억이 담긴 그 이불에

따뜻하게 감싸줄게 그 향기를 잊지 말아줘 사랑했던 그의 길을 이제는 별이 되어 멀어진 너를 언제든 볼 수 있게 되었잖아 기억할게 오늘도 내일도 잊지 않을게 이제 나 있었 듯이

죽을 간직할게 동생 힘들었지? 나중에 우리 만났어 재밌게 놀자? 사랑해. 사랑하는 내 예쁜 딸. 아빠, 엄마, 오빠는 이 영원히 함께 할 거야. 천국에서 꼭 다시 보자. 사랑해 내 예쁜 딸.

예쁜네 딸. 엄마 딸로 와줘서 너무 행복했어 우리 그곳에서 다시 만나자 사람이 기억할 때