"How Could They Do Such a Thing!" "It Breaks My Heart Just Watching"… The 'Horrific' Days at a Taekwondo Gym Captured on CCTV

1. Two Years Ago, the Day Doha Left
In July 2024, Ko Choi Doha, who was three years old at the time, died at a Taekwondo gym in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. The head instructor, surnamed Choi, intentionally wedged the child upside down between gym mats and left him there despite Doha's cries for help. Choi was ultimately sent to trial on charges of child abuse resulting in death and habitual abuse, and in January of this year, the Supreme Court finalized a 30-year prison sentence. However, the head instructor was not the only one who ignored Doha's cries of "Please save me" from inside the mats. There were also assistant instructors at the gym. What were the assistant instructors doing while the head instructor abused the children? It was from this question that reporting continued two years after the incident occurred.

2. More Horrific Moments
What we obtained is CCTV footage capturing the interior of the Taekwondo gym for about two months before the incident occurred. The footage, which head instructor Choi had initially deleted and was later recovered through digital forensics, was broken and cut down to the second, resulting in over 300 files. As we went through them one by one, scenes that had never been revealed before continuously emerged. The head instructor spins Ko Choi Doha in the air with the child's arms tied with a rope. After falling to the ground, Doha lost his strength and hung limply. Yet, the head instructor did not stop there; he tied the child's arms together again and spun him in the air once more. The child hung limply again, appearing to have passed out. But what did the assistant instructor right in front of them do? He did not intervene, save the child, or tell the head instructor to stop. He simply watched. There is another video as well. The head instructor swings his arm broadly to strike the child's head. Even though the child is cowering against the wall in terror and crying, the head instructor lifts his foot as if executing a flying kick. And what were the other assistant instructors, B and C, who were right beside him, doing? They were just smiling broadly. There was also footage from two days before the incident in which Doha died. The head instructor placed Doha on top of a high mat and tried to make him fall or kicked him, forced him to maintain a prone push-up position for about five minutes, and put the child back inside the mats. Instead of helping, one assistant instructor came over and shook Doha violently. While I felt heartbroken just encountering these situations through video, could their thoughts have been different? These assistant instructors are legally mandated reporters of child abuse. However, they offered absurd explanations, claiming that "head instructor Choi was violent and difficult to approach, so they had no choice."

3. Where Are the Three Bystander Instructors Now?
There were three assistant instructors in total. Among them, A is currently standing trial for child abuse. This is because CCTV captured A directly abusing a child, pulling the crying child by the wrists and lifting them up forcibly. The other two, B and C, who were smiling broadly earlier, were not confirmed to have directly struck or abused a child. Consequently, they were initially referred to the court not for a general criminal trial, but as a 'child protection case.' When referred as a child protection case, individuals receive only protective dispositions such as probation, commissioned counseling, and community service without leaving a criminal record. Then a twist occurred. The court determined that this case was not at a level that could simply end with protective dispositions. Therefore, on the 10th, the Uijeongbu District Court sent the cases of B and C back to the prosecution. This means criminal investigations into them could resume, and there is also a possibility that the prosecution will indict them and send them to a criminal trial. Instructor B, who shook Doha while the child was wedged between the mats, even introduced himself as a "Taekwondo instructor" in court. The presiding judge asked, "Do you still teach Taekwondo to children?" Instructor B answered yes.

4. If Only Someone Had Told People Around Them
Doha's mother said the following.

[Choi Min-young / Mother of the late Ko Choi Doha: When the children were treated worse than beasts, (the assistant instructors) were standing nearby smiling. If they had come and talked to me even, wouldn't the children have been saved from dying or getting hurt...]

Would the situation have been slightly different if they had dropped a hint, even while dropping off the children in the academy van? Ultimately, this is the part we must pay attention to. It is a matter of how far accountability can be extended not only to the person who directly committed the abuse, but also to those who knew about the situation and did nothing. Even now, there must be children waiting for someone's help. For children who need active intervention from adults, if child abuse is suspected, you can set aside thoughts of whether it is "meddling in others' business" and report it by calling 112 or 129.

(Reported by Lee Se-hyeon | Production: Shin Hee-suk | Video Reporting: Lim Woo-sik | Video Editing: Ahn Jun-hyeok | Design: Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.