"Please Save Me," While Instructors Giggled Nearby: What CCTV Captured in the Tragic Death of a 3-Year-Old

Do you remember the late Choi Do-ha, who died after being trapped upside down inside a rolled-up mat for 27 minutes? For those hearing about this case for the first time, let us look back at what happened two years ago.
  In July 2024, at a Taekwondo studio in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, three-year-old Choi Do-ha lost his life. The head of the studio, a man surnamed Choi, deliberately stuffed the boy upside down into a rolled mat and refused to pull him out despite Do-ha's desperate cries to save him. The head instructor was eventually put on trial on charges including child abuse murder and habitual child abuse, and the Supreme Court upheld a 30-year prison sentence for him in January of this year.


However, the head instructor was not the only one who ignored Do-ha's cries of "Please save me" from inside the mat. Other assistant instructors at the studio were also present. What were these instructors doing while the head instructor was abusing the children? This question prompted further reporting two years after the incident occurred.
  What we obtained was CCTV footage recorded inside the Taekwondo studio for approximately two months prior to the incident. Because the head instructor, Choi, had deleted the files—which were later recovered through digital forensics—the footage was fragmented into second-by-second clips, totaling over 300 files. Reviewing them one by one revealed continuous scenes that had never been made public before. In one clip, the head instructor ties Do-ha's arms with a rope and spins him around in midair. Dropped to the floor, Do-ha lies limp and powerless. Yet the head instructor does not stop; he binds the child's arms again and spins him through the air once more. The boy collapses again, appearing to have passed out. But what did the assistant instructor standing right in front of them do? He did not intervene, rescue the child, or tell the director to stop. He merely stood by and watched.

There were other videos as well. The head instructor swings his arm forcefully, striking a child in the head. Even as the terrified child huddles against the wall crying, the instructor raises his foot as if executing a flying kick. Meanwhile, two other assistant instructors standing nearby, identified as B and C, are simply smiling broadly.


There was also footage from two days before Do-ha died. The head instructor placed Do-ha on top of a high mat and kicked at him as if trying to push him off, forced him to hold a push-up plank position for about five minutes, and stuffed him into a mat once again. Rather than helping, one instructor walked over and violently shook Do-ha.

Watching these scenes through video alone was heartbreaking, but did these instructors think differently? Under the law, these instructors are mandated reporters of child abuse. Yet they offered the absurd excuse that "the head instructor was violent and difficult to talk to, so there was nothing we could do."
  There were three assistant instructors in total. Among them, Instructor A is currently on trial for child abuse. This is because CCTV captured A directly abusing a child—pulling a crying child by the wrist and lifting them forcefully.


The other two who were seen smiling broadly, B and C, were not seen directly striking or physically abusing children on camera. Consequently, their cases were initially referred to the court not as standard criminal proceedings, but as "child protection cases." In child protection proceedings, offenders only receive protective dispositions such as probation, mandatory counseling, or community service, leaving no criminal record.

However, a turning point occurred. The court determined that this case was too serious to conclude merely with protective dispositions. Thus, on August 10, the Uijeongbu District Court transferred the cases of B and C back to the prosecution. This opens the door for prosecutors to reopen an investigation and potentially indict them for a criminal trial. Instructor B, who shook Do-ha while he was trapped inside the mat, even introduced himself in court as a "Taekwondo instructor." When the presiding judge asked, "Are you still teaching Taekwondo to children today?" B answered that he was.
  Do-ha's mother said:
 
If they had given even a brief tip-off, even while dropping the children off in the shuttle van, would things have turned out differently? Ultimately, this is the core issue to focus on: to what extent can we hold accountable not only those who directly commit abuse, but also those who know about the situation and do nothing? Even at this moment, there are surely children waiting for someone's help. For the sake of children who need proactive intervention from adults, if child abuse is suspected, please put aside any hesitation about meddling and report it to 112 or 129.
 
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.