K-POP SINGER SENTENCED TO 3.5 YEARS FOR RAPE OF TOURIST

A K-pop singer known as Taeil and two other men were each sentenced to 3.5 years in jail last week on a rape charge in a case involving a tourist who was visiting South Korea last year.

- JIN YU YOUNG

Taeil, 31, whose legal name is Moon Tae-il, had pleaded guilty last month along with the other two. According to the local media, the defendants met the woman, a Chinese national, at a bar in Seoul. They took her in a taxi to the home of one of the defendants, where they sexually assaulted her while she was heavily intoxicated.

Prosecutors had sought a seven-year jail term. They said it appeared that the suspects had deliberately moved the victim to another location so it would be hard for her to recall details of the attack.

Moon, a former member of NCT, a popular boy band, appeared in Seoul Central District Court on Thursday wearing a black T-shirt and slacks. His eyes were downcast as Judge Lee Hyun-kyung read aloud his sentence.