124 arrested in South Korean online blackmail sex scandal
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called yesterday for a full investigation into a network of chat rooms at the heart of an operation to blackmail women and underage girls into sharing sexual images of themselves.
The National Police Agency announced 124 suspects have been arrested and 18 chat-room operators on Telegram and other social-media outlets detained as a result of sexual-crime investigations that began in September of 2019.
According to The Diplomats, among the suspects, the most prominent is known by the surname Cho and the Telegram nickname “Doctor.” He is thought to be the largest and most active distributor of illegal videos on the social-media outlets with more than 260,000 followers.
The perpetrators would attract victims through fake job advertisements and solicit compromising photographs. They would then threaten to release the photographs if the victims did not send images of increasingly degrading and violent acts, police said.
At least 74 women, including 16 underage girls, were “virtually enslaved” for several months, police said. In some cases, the victims were blackmailed into committing violent acts on themselves.
Public outrage hit critical mass yesterday as a petition gathered more than 2.3 million signatures — passing a threshold that requires the president’s office to respond.
The petition’s author urged authorities to disclose the identity of the network kingpin — who went by the user name “GodGod” — and release his picture.
The suspect allegedly lured victims into taking nude images of themselves and shared them in a Telegram chat room, a popular encrypted-messaging app.
The petition also criticized other participants who paid as much as 1.5 million won (US$1,187) to view the images.
Police said as a matter of policy they would not reveal any of the suspect’s names.
Presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said Moon considered the alleged crimes “a cruel act that destroyed human life” and asked police to treat the case as a serious crime.
Moon also urged police to expand their investigation into chat-room members to change the perception of perpetrators who “hide behind anonymity.”
As digital sex crimes increase worldwide, South Korea has become the global epicenter of spycam pornography — the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film victims naked, urinating or having sex.
Last year, South Korean, British and American authorities said they arrested 337 people worldwide, including 223 South Koreans, after taking down a child pornography web site operated from South Korea.
标题
124 arrested in South Korean online blackmail sex scandal
blackmail在题目中是不可数名词，表示the crime of demanding money from a person by threatening to tell sb else a secret about them勒索；敲诈。
段落一
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called yesterday for a full investigation into a network of chat rooms at the heart of an operation to blackmail women and underage girls into sharing sexual images of themselves.
[语法]这段句子写得有些千回百转，所以先给大家分析一下语法：South Korean President Moon Jae-in （主语）//called yesterday for（谓语动词） //a full investigation（宾语）// into a network of chat rooms（介词短语做后置定语，修饰investigation，说明是什么样的调查）// at the heart of an operation（介词短语做后置定语，修饰chat rooms） //to blackmail women and underage girls into sharing sexual images of themselves（动词不定式做后置定语，修饰operation。）.
Moon Jae-in文在寅。这里再补充一下经常用来代指韩国政府的“青瓦台”的英文名字：Blue House。
call for这里比较是“呼吁”。使用场景很多，比如写微软的文章中有这么一句话，He is also behind Microsoft’s comparatively cautious use of artificial intelligence, and calls for oversight of facial recognition.
blackmail在本段中是及物动词，勒索、胁迫、敲诈某人做某事就是blackmail sb into doing sth。
当然有时候也可以翻译为“威胁”。
本段交代了这样一些信息：1. 韩国总统呼吁彻查（full investigation）事件；2. 该事件是网上有个聊天室敲诈女性，包括未成年少女，让她们分享自己的性照片。
段落二
The National Police Agency announced 124 suspects have been arrested and 18 chat-room operators on Telegram and other social-media outlets detained as a result of sexual-crime investigations that began in September of 2019.
本段接着交代了调查结果。
首先我们来了解一下Telegram。它是一个instant messaging service（即时通讯软件）。这款软件在2013年推出，由俄罗斯兄弟尼古拉杜洛夫和帕维尔杜洛夫创办，特色是私密聊天。因为采用端到端的加密，所以两人的聊天记录只有彼此聊天的两个人知道，因此聊天记录只能在双方的客户端上查询到。后面还有关于它的英文解释，到时候我们再看。
social-media outlets社交媒体渠道。outlet本意是“出口”，经常和媒体有关的词汇连用，比如news outlets表示新闻媒体，新闻机构，media outlets媒体。
detain和前面的arrest意思差不多，表示“扣留，扣押”。在detained前面出现了省略，省略的是和上一句相同的have been。大家带到原文自行补充一下。
段落三
According to The Diplomats, among the suspects, the most prominent is known by the surname Cho and the Telegram nickname “Doctor.” He is thought to be the largest and most active distributor of illegal videos on the social-media outlets with more than 260,000 followers.
本段提供了关于“N号房”事件主犯“赵博士”的一些信息。
prominent表示“突出的”。往前看一点，它搭配的是suspects，所以我们也可以用the most prominent suspect来形容“主犯”。
[翻译]distributor是个精炼的词，它所在的句子值得回译。中文的意思是“他被认为是发布视频最多，最活跃的人。”就中文来说，显然翻译成动词“发布”更合适，但是英文我们可以用名词distributor的形式来表达。注意这种中英词性上的转换。
社交媒体上的粉丝我们是follower。follow表示“关注”。
段落四
The perpetrators would attract victims through fake job advertisements and solicit compromising photographs. They would then threaten to release the photographs if the victims did not send images of increasingly degrading and violent acts, police said.
本段大致说了一下女性、女孩子是如何落入魔掌的。
perpetrator表示a person who commits a crime or does sth that is wrong or evil作恶者；行凶者；犯罪者，相当于wrongdoer, offender。
solicit的意思是to ask sb for sth, such as support, money, or information; to try to get sth or persuade sb to do sth索求，请求…给予(援助、钱或信息)；征求；筹集。比如，经济学人里的这句话，An updated version, released in 2016, solicited contributions from Marina Abramović, Joyce Carol Oates and Ed Ruscha among others. 2016年推出的一个更新的版本，从Abramović, Joyce Carol Oates and Ed Ruscha等等处筹集捐款。
compromising意思是if sth is compromising, it shows or tells people sth that you want to keep secret, because it is wrong or embarrassing有失体面的；不宜泄露的，compromising photos 不宜公开的照片 &They were discovered together in a compromising situation. 他们被人发现在一起，场面有伤风化。
所以solicit compromising photographs就表示向求职的女性索要一些不宜公开的照片。这些人的目标对象往往是做着明星梦的中学生，通过在网上发布一些模特，演出等的工作信息，吸引女学生，并要求她们提供一些“性感的，拿得出手的”照片，以此来提高获得演艺工作的可能性。
在获得这些照片后，威胁女学生或者年轻女性按照他们的要求继续拍摄，不然就公开这些照片给她们的老师，或者父母。心智弱小，只能任人摆布，拍摄更加过分，甚至反人伦的照片或者视频。
degrading在这里是指treating sb as if they have no value, so that they lose their self-respect and the respect of other people有辱人格的；降低身分的；贬低的，比如，the inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners 犯人所受的不人道和侮辱性待遇。
段落五
At least 74 women, including 16 underage girls, were “virtually enslaved” for several months, police said. In some cases, the victims were blackmailed into committing violent acts on themselves.
underage girls指未成年女孩，有些文章用minors来表示。underage指的是done by people who are too young by law 未达到法定年龄的人所做的；未成年人的，比如underage drinking 未成年饮酒。
under-是一个词缀，表示“不足的”，比如人手不足的，understaffed；报酬或者工资低的，underpaid；服务不到位的，underserved; 经费短缺的，underfunded。
virtually这个词很有意思，我们知道它的形容词形式virtual表示虚拟的，比如虚拟现实virtual reality。但是作为副词virtually的形式，经常表示的意思却是实际上，或者几乎的意思，和“虚拟”这层意思正好相反。不要觉得晕头转向的，这样记起来不是更加容易么？
我们看一个经济学人中的句子加深理解，Take Arm, a Britain-based firm whose technology powers chips in virtually every phone in the world, including those made by HiSilicon.以总部位于英国的科技公司安谋（Arm）为例，全球几乎每台手机的芯片都使用了它的技术，包括海思半导体设计的芯片。
enslave这个构词应该也不陌生，en+名词或者形容词，变身为及物动词，比如enlarge使变大，sharpen使锋利。所以enslave表示使成为奴隶，奴役。
[拓展]再给大家介绍be enslaved to这个短语，先看一个雪人中的例句，The modern company has morphed into a “money monster” enslaved to the doctrine of shareholder value.现代公司已经变成了一个“金钱怪兽”，受制于股东价值的教条。
根据这个句子可以看出be enslaved to表示受制于，有点像be subject to, be submitted to。
段落六
Public outrage hit critical mass yesterday as a petitiongathered more than 2.3 million signatures — passing a threshold that requires the president’s office to respond.
公众有什么反应呢？这次韩国民众的反应特别大，我们来看看。
首先讲一下critical mass这个概念，词典中有这层意思，(某事发生或继续所需的)足够数量；A critical mass of something is an amount of it that makes it possible for something to happen or continue.比如，Only in this way can the critical mass of participation be reached.只有这样才能凑足参与人数。
大家再往后看，passing a threshold that requires the president’s office to respond这里的threshold（门槛）就和critical mass意思等同，也就是公众对于该事件非常愤怒，向政府请愿，请愿人数达到了总统府受理的门槛。
hit表示to reach a particular level达到(某水平)。一般用hit，说明达到的数字或者程度不寻常。hit还经常和goal搭配，hit the goal表示达到目标。
public outrage中outrage这个词在外刊精读：特朗普带头炒作“中国病毒”，到底居心何在？最开头的地方进行了详细讲解，大家点击蓝字复习一下。outrage表示愤怒，其他文章还用了anger, fury。表示激起愤怒我们可以用ignite, provoke, trigger public outrage/anger/fury。
petition是可数名词，意思是a written request signed by a lot of people, asking someone in authority to do something or change something请愿（书）。
段落七
The petition’s author urged authorities to disclose the identity of the network kingpin — who went by the user name “GodGod” — and release his picture.
下面用了5段来说明petition的内容。这段的请求是揭露中心人物。
kingpin the most important person in an organization or activity (组织或活动中的)主要人物，领袖，比如，a mafia kingpin黑手党首领
这里的“GodGod”和“Doctor”是两个人，Godgod是N号房的首创者，他在Telegram上开设了多个秘密聊天室，因为聊天室以数字命名，因此被称为N号房。后来因为要高考离开了（这是有多麻木？）。而Doctor是第三任房主，造成的影响也是最恶劣，最邪恶的。
段落八
The suspect allegedly lured victims into taking nude images of themselves and shared them in a Telegram chat room, a popular encrypted-messaging app.
allegedly表示used when reporting something that people say is true, although it has not been proved据说，比如，a sports car, allegedly stolen in Manchester据说是在曼彻斯特偷的一辆跑车。
这是一个新闻常用的单词。新闻报道发生了某件事时，如果不是记者目睹或是经过证实的，为了慎重起见，往往使用这个单词，表示“据称”如何如何。
更常见的是alleged，比如原文这句也可以表示成It is alleged that the suspect lured victims into taking nude images of themselves. 或者The suspect was alleged to lure victims into taking nude images of themselves.
alleged还有一层具体的意思是“涉嫌的”，比如，the alleged attack / offence / incident 涉嫌的袭击 / 罪行 / 事件。
lure表示引诱，劝诱，我们通过这句话记住这个结构lure sb into doing sth引诱某人做某事。
nude images也就是naked images。
这句话对telegram进行了本质的解释，我们了解一下， Telegram chat room, a popular encrypted-messaging app。
其中encrypted-messaging app表示加密信息应用。就此我们学习一个前缀crypto-，表示secret秘密的；保密的；隐蔽的。在N号房事件中，涉事人员都是通过加密货币进行交易，加密货币是cryptocurrency。
段落九
The petition also criticized other participants who paid as much as 1.5 million won (US$1,187) to view the images.
此次请愿比较硬核的是，请愿者不仅要求惩处犯罪，还认为进入聊天室观看这些非法视频的26万人也是帮凶，也应该暴露其个人信息，就像另一篇文章中讲到的，Cho’s followers, by enjoying the illegal materials, were all contributors to the crime.
硬核归硬核，小编担心这样做可能会适得其反，因为26万人呐，占据了韩国男性人数的1/100，难免会侵犯到某些财阀特权阶级的利益，毕竟收费会员中有教授、人气艺人、体育明星、著名创业公司CEO等知名人士，事件恐怕到最后又是不了了之。
段落十、十一
Police said as a matter of policy they would not reveal any of the suspect’s names.
Presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said Moon considered the alleged crimes “a cruel act that destroyed human life” and asked police to treat the case as a serious crime.
这段我们就看这么一个句子Moon considered the alleged crimes “a cruel act that destroyed human life”，这其中含有一个含简单的结构consider XX (as/to be) XX，as/to be都是可以省略的，所以a cruel act that destroyed human life”前面省略了as/to be，它做的是the alleged crimes的宾补。
段落十二
Moon also urged police to expand their investigation into chat-room members to change the perception of perpetrators who “hide behind anonymity.”
perception意思是an idea, a belief or an image you have as a result of how you see or understand sth看法；见解，比如，There is a general public perception that standards in schools are falling. 公众普遍认为，学校的水平都在下降。
hide behind anonymity三个词一起记下来，表示匿名隐藏自己的身份，在网暴话题中可以用上，比如，在网络上乱喷是因为有匿名作掩护，认为自己可以为所欲为，Some people are rude online because hiding behind anonymity, they feel like they can get away with anything.
段落十二
Moon also urged police to expand their investigation into chat-room members to change the perception of perpetrators who “hide behind anonymity.”
perception意思是an idea, a belief or an image you have as a result of how you see or understand sth看法；见解，比如，There is a general public perception that standards in schools are falling. 公众普遍认为，学校的水平都在下降。
hide behind anonymity三个词一起记下来，表示匿名隐藏自己的身份，在网暴话题中可以用上，比如，在网络上乱喷是因为有匿名作掩护，认为自己可以为所欲为，Some people are rude online because hiding behind anonymity, they feel like they can get away with anything.
段落十三、十四
As digital sex crimes increase worldwide, South Korea has become the global epicenter of spycam pornography — the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film victims naked, urinating or having sex.
Last year, South Korean, British and American authorities said they arrested 337 people worldwide, including 223 South Koreans, after taking down a child pornography web site operated from South Korea.
下面两段开始透过现象看本质，分析了为什么韩国总是出现此类事件。
epicenter 表示中心，比如硅谷是科技中心，Silicon Valley, the epicentre of technology; 纽约曾经是艾滋病的重灾区，New York, the plague’s epicentre；武汉是这次新冠病毒的集中爆发地区，Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, was the hardest-hit city.
spycam间谍摄像机，后面有进一步解释，the tiny, hidden cameras。
urinate排尿；小便；撒尿。
在另一篇文章中用一个“强奸文化”概念描述了韩国社会:
XX also pointed out that while it is also important to decide punishments, such crimes could recur as long as the so-called “rape culture” continues to exist in South Korean society.
The term “rape culture” refers to an environment in which rape is rampant and media and pop culture norms tolerate sexual violence against women, according to XX.
XX还指出，虽然决定刑罚也很重要，但只要所谓的“强奸文化”在韩国社会继续存在，此类犯罪就可能再次发生。
XX称，“强奸文化”指的是这样一种环境:强奸猖獗，媒体和流行文化规范容忍对女性的性暴力。
take down在这里指，an arrest or unexpected visit by the police (警方的)抓捕行动，临检，突检。
124 arrested in South Korean online blackmail sex scandal
