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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Korean actress commit sucide</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Apr-24 10:02 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 5) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>12173.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>9 to face charges over actress' death
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>They are accused of coercion, assault and defamation</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
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Korean actress Jang Ja Yeon hanged herself last month and left a note to say that she had been forced to provide sexual favours. -- PHOTO: SOULGOOK
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SEOUL: South Korean police said yesterday they would charge nine people in the case of TV actress Jang Ja Yeon, who committed suicide after suggesting she had been forced to provide sexual favours to advance her career.
Police said the nine, who were not detained, would face various charges such as coercion, physical assault or defamation.
The suspects are three entertainment agency officials, two television programme makers, three bank officers and a businessman.
A probe into five other suspects has been suspended until the actress's former agency head, identified by the South Korean media as Mr Kim Sung Hun, returns from Japan, police said in a statement.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Mr Kim, who has been living in Japan since last December, and have formally asked Japan to deport him.
Mr Kim is suspected of having forced the actress to have sex with influential figures in the entertainment and media industry to promote her career, a police spokesman said.
The former agency head has protested his innocence.
Ms Jang, 26, hanged herself at her home last month, leaving a seven-page suicide note, according to the South Korean media.
'I was called to a bar and pressured to accept a request for a sexual relationship,' she reportedly wrote.
'I am a powerless young actress who can't fix what is so evidently wrong.'
Media reports say the note contains names of people who had drinking parties or sex with her but police declined to give details.
She had a supporting role in Boys Over Flowers, the nation's most avidly watched drama serial.
The apparent sex-for-favours scandal - which reportedly implicated influential media and entertainment figures - has sparked an uproar in South Korea.
Some observers said the case has cast the spotlight on a longstanding practice in South Korea of using women to seal deals and forge business relations.
A South Korean women's movement - which claims credit for driving the Miss Korea beauty pageant off the airwaves - said yesterday it would address the issue when it stages an alternative festival this weekend mocking traditional attitudes towards women.
The Anti-Miss Korea Festival, which the movement has staged annually since 1999, is this year changing its name to IF (If you want to become a real Feminist), chief policy planner Gang Soo Jeong said.
The annual event, which kicks off today at a Seoul university, will focus on economic hardships and sexual mistreatment faced by South Korean women during the global economic recession.
'Amid the economic slump, discrimination against women in job opportunities, for example, has become worse. Through this festival, we'll shed light on their adversities and give them a pep talk,' said Ms Gang.
One skit will mock the apparent sex-for-favours scandal involving Ms Jang.
The festival will also feature a skit on a case involving another actress who unsuccessfully challenged a law which criminalises adultery.
Ms Gang said the Miss Korea beauty pageant was taken off the air in 2002 'because our campaign against it worked out pretty well'. Although attitudes are changing, South Korea has traditionally been a male-dominated society. The US State Department's 2007 human rights report noted that 'gender discrimination in the workplace remained a problem'.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>They are accused of coercion, assault and defamation</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Korean actress Jang Ja Yeon hanged herself last month and left a note to say that she had been forced to provide sexual favours. -- PHOTO: SOULGOOK
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
SEOUL: South Korean police said yesterday they would charge nine people in the case of TV actress Jang Ja Yeon, who committed suicide after suggesting she had been forced to provide sexual favours to advance her career.
Police said the nine, who were not detained, would face various charges such as coercion, physical assault or defamation.
The suspects are three entertainment agency officials, two television programme makers, three bank officers and a businessman.
A probe into five other suspects has been suspended until the actress's former agency head, identified by the South Korean media as Mr Kim Sung Hun, returns from Japan, police said in a statement.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Mr Kim, who has been living in Japan since last December, and have formally asked Japan to deport him.
Mr Kim is suspected of having forced the actress to have sex with influential figures in the entertainment and media industry to promote her career, a police spokesman said.
The former agency head has protested his innocence.
Ms Jang, 26, hanged herself at her home last month, leaving a seven-page suicide note, according to the South Korean media.
'I was called to a bar and pressured to accept a request for a sexual relationship,' she reportedly wrote.
'I am a powerless young actress who can't fix what is so evidently wrong.'
Media reports say the note contains names of people who had drinking parties or sex with her but police declined to give details.
She had a supporting role in Boys Over Flowers, the nation's most avidly watched drama serial.
The apparent sex-for-favours scandal - which reportedly implicated influential media and entertainment figures - has sparked an uproar in South Korea.
Some observers said the case has cast the spotlight on a longstanding practice in South Korea of using women to seal deals and forge business relations.
A South Korean women's movement - which claims credit for driving the Miss Korea beauty pageant off the airwaves - said yesterday it would address the issue when it stages an alternative festival this weekend mocking traditional attitudes towards women.
The Anti-Miss Korea Festival, which the movement has staged annually since 1999, is this year changing its name to IF (If you want to become a real Feminist), chief policy planner Gang Soo Jeong said.
The annual event, which kicks off today at a Seoul university, will focus on economic hardships and sexual mistreatment faced by South Korean women during the global economic recession.
'Amid the economic slump, discrimination against women in job opportunities, for example, has become worse. Through this festival, we'll shed light on their adversities and give them a pep talk,' said Ms Gang.
One skit will mock the apparent sex-for-favours scandal involving Ms Jang.
The festival will also feature a skit on a case involving another actress who unsuccessfully challenged a law which criminalises adultery.
Ms Gang said the Miss Korea beauty pageant was taken off the air in 2002 'because our campaign against it worked out pretty well'. Although attitudes are changing, South Korea has traditionally been a male-dominated society. The US State Department's 2007 human rights report noted that 'gender discrimination in the workplace remained a problem'.
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