Shin claimed that at age 23 in 1995, she was rescued after being trapped for eight hours under the rubble of the Sampoong Department Store collapse.
[11] A South Korean court handed down a suspended one-year jail term to former presidential aide Byeon Yang-kyoon, with whom Shin was romantically linked.
Byeon was ordered to conduct 160 hours of community service for exercising his influence to provide state tax benefits to a Buddhist temple founded by a former Dongguk University official who helped hire Shin as a professor.
However, the KPEC rejected Munhwa Ilbo's explanation, and ordered the daily to apologise, stating that it had damaged the dignity of all print media.
[13] In the end, Shin filed suit over the photos and the newspaper's coverage of her, receiving W150 million (US$113,000) in compensation in December 2008.