好英语网韩国“N号房”事件：匿名聊天室里的性剥削和奴役
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean police on Wednesday asked prosecutors to indict a 24-year-old man on charges he blackmailed dozens of young women, including at least 16 minors, into making sexually explicit video clips that he sold online through encrypted chat rooms.
韩国首尔——周三，韩国警方要求检方起诉一名24岁男性，他被控勒索数十名年轻女性拍摄色情视频，其中至少有16名是未成年人，并通过加密聊天室在网上出售这些视频。
The case has galvanized nationwide attention to what women’s rights advocates have called a growing problem in South Korea: a network of clandestine online chat rooms that lure young women with promises of high-paying jobs online and then exploit them sexually. Some estimates in the local news media say that up to 300,000 paying customers use these online chat rooms, in which operators go so far as to provide tailor-made footage for individual customers that often include extremely dehumanizing sex scenes, the police say.
这起案件令女权倡导者所称的一个日益严重的问题引起全国关注：一个由秘密聊天室组成的网络，以在线高薪工作的承诺来吸引年轻女性，然后对她们进行性剥削。据当地新闻媒体估计，有多达30万付费用户在使用这些在线聊天室，警方表示，在这些聊天室里，运营者甚至为个别用户提供量身定制的视频，其中往往包括极度不人道的性场景。
周三，“N号房”事件中最臭名昭著的嫌疑人赵周彬在首尔被记者包围，当时他正走出警局，将被转移至检察官办公室接受进一步调查。
The man in the latest case, Cho Joo-bin, has shared such illegal video footage since late 2018 through members-only chat rooms he operated on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service popular in South Korea, the police said.
警方称，涉及最近一起案件的人叫赵周彬，自2018年底以来，他一直通过在Telegram上运营的会员聊天室分享这些非法视频片段。Telegram是在韩国很受欢迎的加密信息服务。
Mr. Cho, who went by his online alias “The Doc,” is the most infamous criminal suspect in the authorities’ efforts to clamp down on the booming trade in such sexually explicit videos.
赵周彬在网上化名“博士”，是韩国当局对此类数量激增的色情视频交易的打击中，最臭名昭著的犯罪嫌疑人。
As he was escorted from a Seoul police station Wednesday morning on his way to the prosecutor’s office, Mr. Cho said, “Thank you for stopping my life as a devil that I could not stop.” But he did not respond when journalists asked him to comment on various criminal charges he faced.
周三上午，在被押解离开首尔一间警局，前往检察官办公室的途中，赵周彬说，“感谢你们让我停下了我无法停下的恶魔般的生活。”但当记者要求他就面临的多项多项刑事指控发表评论时，他没有做出回应。
The police did not release Mr. Cho’s name or an image of him until Wednesday. South Korea usually protects criminal suspects’ identities to respect their rights and that of their relatives. But it makes exceptions when the accused are public figures or are charged with particularly heinous crimes.
直到周三，警方才公布赵周彬的名字和照片。韩国通常保护犯罪嫌疑人的身份，尊重他们及其亲属的权利。但当被告是公众人物或有特别令人发指的罪行时，就会有例外情况。
Since Mr. Cho’s arrest last week, more than 2.6 million South Koreans have supported an online petition to President Moon Jae-in asking the government to reveal his name and face. Another petition, which asked the government to identify all customers of online chat rooms operated by Mr. Cho and others like him, has drawn nearly 1.9 million supporters.
自上周赵周彬被逮捕以来，超过260万韩国人在网上向文在寅总统请愿，要求政府公开他的名字和长相。另一则吸引近190万人参与的请愿，则要求政府公布参与了赵周彬和其他类似聊天室的所有客户名单。
On Wednesday, as it handed Mr. Cho over to prosecutors, the National Police Agency said it was revealing his identity because of what it called his “vicious and repetitive criminal method” in keeping 74 women, including 16 minors, in sexual “slavery.”
周三，韩国警察厅在将赵周彬移交检方时表示，之所以披露赵周彬身份，是因为他“反复用残忍的犯罪手段”使74名女性（包括16名未成年人）沦为性“奴隶”。
In the past week, South Koreans have expressed increasing outrage as details of Mr. Cho’s alleged criminal activities emerged in local media.
过去一周，随着韩国媒体不断披露赵周彬涉嫌犯罪活动的细节，韩国民众表达了越来越强烈的愤怒。
Mr. Cho attracted female victims with fake job offers online and then lured them into making sexually explicit video clips, promising them a big payout, the police said. Once he got hold of those compromising images, he used them as a blackmailing tool, threatening to release them online or to their friends and relatives unless the women supplied increasingly dehumanizing and even violent footage.
警方称，赵周彬在网上用虚假的工作机会吸引女性受害者，然后引诱她们拍摄露骨的性视频片段，并承诺给她们一大笔钱。一旦得到这些不堪的素材，他就以此为勒索工具，威胁要在网上或向她们的朋友亲戚公开，除非她们继续提供愈加灭绝人性甚至暴力的素材。
In the videos, some of the victims had the word “slave” marked on their bodies, local news media reported.
据当地媒体报道，在这些视频中，一些受害者的身体上刻有“奴隶”这个词。
In recent years, the South Korean police have been cracking down on pornographic file-sharing websites as part of international efforts to fight child pornography. As they did so, they said they soon realized that much of the illegal trade in pornography was migrating to online chat rooms on social media messaging services like Telegram.
近年来，作为世界致力于打击儿童色情产业的一部分，韩国警方一直在取缔色情文件分享网站。但与此同时，警方说他们很快意识到很大一部分非法色情交易正转移到Telegram等社交媒体信息服务的聊天群中。
Telegram has become popular among many South Koreans who believe that such encrypted messaging apps help protect their freedom of speech. But the widening police investigation showed that such apps have also become important vehicles for the sex trade.
Telegram大受欢迎，是因为许多韩国人认为这类加密信息应用有助于保护他们的言论自由。但据警方不断扩大的调查显示，这类应用也成为了色情交易的重要工具。
In September, the police arrested a chat-room operator known as “the Watchman.” He turned out to be a 38-year-old office worker. Last month, the police arrested 66 people involved in the operation of other online chat rooms.
去年9月，警方逮捕了一名化名“守望者”的聊天室运营者。他的身份原来是一名38岁的办公室职员。上个月，警方逮捕了66名参与其他在线聊天室运营的人。
But “The Doc” had proven particularly elusive as he pursued his lucrative trade, luring customers with “trailer” clips on Telegram chat rooms and charging them more when they demanded more sexually explicit or perverted video clips, investigators said.
但如今看来，这位“博士”在从事这项暴利营生时格外狡猾，调查人员说，他在Telegram聊天室中用“预览”片段吸引客户，当客户要求更多露骨或污秽的视频时，他就向他们收取更高的费用。
When the police finally caught him last week, “The Doc” turned out to be Mr. Cho, an ordinary looking graduate of a two-year vocational college in Incheon, west of Seoul, who once served as his campus newspaper’s editor in chief. Mr. Cho has lived a double life, volunteering for a charity that aids handicapped or poor people, according to the local news media.
当警方在上周终于将其逮捕，才得知“博士”就是赵周彬，首尔以西的仁川市一所两年制职业学院的普通毕业生，曾经担任过校报主编。据当地媒体报道，赵周彬过着双重生活，同时还在一家帮助残疾人和穷人的慈善机构当志愿者。
The police also apprehended a dozen accomplices, including young men in their 20s who were serving in government agencies as part of their mandatory military duty. Investigators were also looking for another anonymous chat room operator known as “GodGod.”
警方还逮捕了十几名共犯，其中有20多岁的年轻人，在政府机构服务以履行强制性的兵役。调查人员还在寻找另一个化名“GodGod”的匿名聊天室运营者。
On Monday, Mr. Moon promised a full investigation and stern punishment. He urged the police to investigate the customers of the chat rooms as well. Mr. Cho and his customers have often used cryptocurrency payments to throw the police off their trail, investigators said.
周一，文在寅承诺进行全面调查，严惩不贷。他还敦促警方调查这些聊天室的客户。调查人员称，赵周彬和他的客户经常使用加密货币来摆脱警方的追踪。
In 2017, South Korea revised laws to strengthen punishment for spycam pornography — the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film female victims, often in public bathrooms. Lee Jung-ok, the minister of gender equality and family, said this week that the government was working to further increase punishment for sexual crimes online.
2017年，韩国修订法律，加强对偷拍色情内容——即用隐蔽的微型摄像机拍摄女性受害者，地点通常在公共卫生间——的惩罚。韩国女性家族部(Ministry of Gender Equality and Family)部长李贞玉本周表示，政府正努力进一步增加对网络性犯罪的惩治。