Police said Wednesday they had taken a 27-year-old woman into custody on suspicion of secretly filming a women’s locker room at local water resorts, including images of victims in the shower that were later leaked online.

The suspect, identified by her surname Choi, allegedly took the images at three water resorts and an outdoor pool in Korea last summer. She has admitted to taking the images, but denied any responsibility for distributing them online.

Choi said she was asked to film the images for 1 million won ($850) each time by a man she met online in spring 2014, according to an investigative team from Yongin Dongbu Police Station in charge of the case.

“The supposed accomplice has not been verified yet. ... We are currently focusing our efforts on who that person is,” officials said.

The suspect reportedly told the police that she committed the crime because she needed the money, and that she was sorry to the victims.

The case came to light in mid-August when the images were leaked online via a porn website based outside the country. The two videos -- each under 10 minutes long -- show the women’s shower room at the resort, exposing the victims’ bodies and faces.

Police said Choi filmed about 185 minutes of illegal footage.

On Aug. 17, officials at the Everland theme park in Gyeonggi Province reported the case to local police, saying that one of the videos appeared to have been filmed at its water park.

Officials saw a brief image of a woman in the footage, who was holding a cellphone and appeared to be filming, and identified Choi as the suspect on Tuesday.

They were on a stakeout near her father’s house in South Jeolla Province around 6 p.m. Around 9 p.m., she visited a local police station to accuse her father of assaulting her. She was apprehended around 9:25 p.m. upon leaving the station.

According to police, Choi’s father had learned that she was responsible for filming the images and confronted her.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)