Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Kang Ji-hwan, a 42-year-old actor, was given a suspended jail sentence on charges of sexually assaulting a woman from his management agency and molesting another while sleeping together at his home after a drinking party.

A criminal court in Suwon, a southern satellite city of Seoul, sentenced Kang to two and a half years in prison with a stay of execution for three years. Kang was arrested at his house in Gwangju, a southeastern satellite city of Seoul, on July 9. The suspended sentence came after the two women provided a written agreement that they do not want Kang to be punished.

The actor was suspected of quasi-rape, which refers to sexual assault involving a person engaging in sexual intercourse with another person by taking advantage of the victim's state of unconsciousness or inability to resist. Kang debuted as a musical actor in 2002 and played his first main role in a TV drama in 2005. 

The case followed a sex video scandal involving Jung Joon-young, a singer and TV personality, and other artists. On November 29, Jung was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of filming sex videos and sharing them with other singer friends through social media chat rooms.