Two K-pop stars have been jailed in South Korea for gang-raping drunk unconscious women.

Jung Joon-young, 30, and Choi Jong-hoon, 30, were sentenced to six and five years in prison for rape at Seoul Central District Court on Friday.

The men will also each have to do 80 hours of “sexual violence treatment education” as part of their sentence.

Both men were members of online chat groups that shared secret sex tapes and made jokes about drugging and raping women, the court heard.

Jung’s conviction included charges for sharing videos he secretly filmed during the rape of one woman and while having sex with other women.

K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Show all 10 1 /10 K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Yuuka Hasumi, 17, and Ibuki Ito, 17, from Japan, who want to become K-pop stars, perform at an Acopia School party in Seoul, South Korea. Acopia is a prep school offering young Japanese a shot at K-pop stardom, teaching them the dance moves, the songs and also the language Images Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Miyu Takeuchi, a trainee with the K-pop agency Mystic Entertainment, sings during a training session in Seoul. Takeuchi said it wasn't a difficult decision to leave a 10-year career with a top idol band AKB48 back home in Japan to sign with the K-pop agency Mystic Entertainment in March as a trainee. Even with her experience, she has seven hours of vocal training a day and two-hour dance lessons twice a week, plus early morning Korean lessons. She is not allowed to have a boyfriend but she says she has no regrets, despite the fact there is no guarantee she will make it. "I don't know how long my training period will be, but it has to reach a point where my coaches and management company say 'Miyu, you are a professional!'" Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Yuuka sings a song as she spends time after class, in the Hongdae area of Seoul. She put high school in Japan on hold and flew to South Korea in February to try her chances at becoming a K-pop star, even if that means long hours of vocal and dance training, no privacy, no boyfriend, and even no phone. "It is tough," Hasumi said. "Going through a strict training and taking my skill to a higher level to a perfect stage, I think that's when it is good to make a debut" Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Nao Niitsu, 19, a college freshman from Tokyo, who wants to be a K-pop star, practices dancing to K-pop songs in her room in Tokyo. "I've heard stories about no free time or not being able to do what I want. But, I think all of K-pop stars who are now performing have gone down the same road," said Niitsu Reuters/Kim Kyung Hoon K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Yuho Wakamatsu, 15, who wants to become a K-pop star, adjusts her makeup during a training session in Seoul Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Nao and other children sit on a bus heading for an audition in Seoul Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Yuuka and Ibuki at a street performance in Hongdae area of Seoul Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Nao chooses her profile picture before an audition in Seoul. During a visit to Seoul paid for by her mother, herself a die-hard BTS fan, Niitsu auditioned for 10 agencies and was accepted by five Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea A K-pop applicant performs at an audition in Tokyo Reuters/Kim Kyung Hoon K-Pop stardom luring Japan's youth to Korea Nao and other Japanese children warm up for an audition at a park in Seoul Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

The musician, who rose to fame on a TV talent show, admitted distributing the videos, but claimed the sex was consensual in all cases.

Sentencing the musicians on Friday, judge Kang Seong-soo said: “The defendants are well-known celebrities and friends, but the chat they’ve had showed that they simply considered women as objects of sexual pleasure, and committed crimes that were extremely serious.

“Strict punishment is inevitable as the damage inflicted has not properly been recovered and the victims demand harsh penalties.”

Choi, a former member of South Korean boy band FT Island, denied raping the woman in one of the videos filmed by Jung.

He argued that he did not remember having sex with her and that if he had it was likely consensual.

Their case was one of several scandals involving sex crimes and other illegal activity that revealed a dark side of an industry at the centre of the global K-pop craze.

Lee Seung-hyun, a former member of K-pop group Big Bang who is better known by the stage name Seungri, is also on trial over accusations he paid for prostitutes for foreign businessmen to drum up investment in his business.

Lawyers for Jung and Choi could not be reached for comment.