A movie star, a suicide and a nation’s war on drugs

SEOUL —

South Korean star Lee Sun-kyun discovered he was being examined for controlled substance usage after checking out it in the news.

The story that dripped to the South Korean news media was that investigators from the city of Incheon were acting upon a pointer that Lee had actually taken ketamine and cannabis.

Best understood for his function as a hoity-toity tech executive in the Oscar-winning 2019 dark funny “Parasite,” Lee was among the nation’s greatest film stars. He had lead functions in 2 of the 7 Korean movies evaluated in May at the Cannes Film Festival.

South Korea has a few of the harshest drug laws worldwide, and leisure usage has actually long been handled as a criminal matter instead of a public health problem. The cops examination was opened in October amidst a restored crackdownand authorities appeared identified to make an example out of Lee.

He was paraded in front of press reporters, drug-tested 4 times and as soon as questioned for 19 hours directly. Salacious individual information, dripped to the media, formed a pulpy story of a precious star whose deviant personal life was lastly being unmasked.

Lee, 48, preserved his innocence. On Dec. 27, after Lee went missing out on, authorities discovered him dead in his vehicle at a park in Seoul in an evident suicide.

His death released a swell of criticism that overzealous private investigators and the media had actually turned Lee into a victim of what Jang Won-seok, a movie manufacturer and long time pal of the star, referred to as “a character assassination that pressed him to the outright bottom.”

Less are questioning the method drug users are demonized in South Korea, a mind-set stired by years of federal government rhetoric and hard-line policy.

“The public sees substance abuse as a ‘social evil,'” Jang stated. “Of the lots of scandals that a star can suffer, drugs are amongst the worst.”

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Authorities ended up being thinking about Lee after a 28-year-old small-time previous starlet– whom they have actually recognized just by her surname, Park– appeared at a police headquarters declaring that a previous buddy and the film star were drug users.

The previous pal, a 29-year-old lady with the surname Kim, handled a members-only bar in Seoul. News accounts stated the 2 had actually fulfilled years previously in jail, where Kim was supposedly serving time for drugs and Park for scams. Their relationship had actually just recently soured.

It was Kim, dealing with prosecution, who supplied the information about Lee and the drugs she stated he utilized at her house a number of times.

According to cops reports gotten by broadcaster MBC, her recollection of which dates this occurred moved consistently before investigators lastly zeroed in on 4 particular days in between October 2022 and June 2023.

Lee made an unexpected counter-allegation, declaring that Kim had actually obtained $225,000 from him, while another blackmailer– later exposed to be Park– had actually turned to extortion also, to the tune of $37,000.

In South Korea, police authorities are disallowed from revealing the identities of suspects under criminal examination or permitting suspects to be tape-recorded on video or photographed by the media. By the time Lee was summoned by the cops in late October, a local paper, estimating a confidential Incheon authorities source, had actually currently broken the news about the examination, setting off a maelstrom of protection. “Lee Sun-kyun drug claims develop shock waves,” checked out a common heading. “Damage anticipated to reach fellow stars and production personnel.”

At the front of the station, a wall of press reporters welcomed Lee, who appeared tense and solemn– a sharp departure from his public image of clean-cut, jaunty wholesomeness.

“These sorts of A-lister celeb drug scandals are practically unprecedented in South Korea,” stated Kim Hern-sik, a popular culture critic who has actually discussed Lee’s case on nationwide tv. “And if you appear in journalism like that, you’re instantly branded as guilty.”

As a regional telecoms business and vitamin maker started pulling their marketing campaign including Lee, concerns flowed about who had actually tipped off the media about his journey to the station.

In a composed declaration a representative for authorities rejected that they divulged the date of Lee’s summons, including that “we remain in the procedure of determining whether the source of the preliminary report was from an internal leakage.”

Police specialists have actually likewise slammed the authorities’s handling of the early phases of their examination.

“Establishing the fundamental realities, like the particular dates of the declared substance abuse, or vetting the trustworthiness of the accuser’s claims– these are things that must have been done extremely early on, before Lee was summoned,” stated Kim Hee-jun, a previous narcotics detective with South Korea’s district attorneys’ workplace.

“I’ve examined lots of celebs in the past, however not when did I summon them openly,” he stated. “Once the suspect is exposed to be somebody well-known and there is an expectant environment being produced, it’s tough to state ‘oh, we checked out it and there’s absolutely nothing there.’ It can sway the examination towards prosecution.”

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The majority of Asia has actually taken a tough position versus leisure substance abuse, and South Korea is no exception. People can even be prosecuted for taking in drugs outside the nation.

Things weren’t constantly this method.

Marijuana seeds were utilized in conventional Korean medication, and as just recently as the 1960s, cannabis might be discovered growing wild in the countryside, where farmers would in some cases smoke the leaves like tobacco.

Leisure cannabis usage settled amongst the countercultural youth of the 1970srelated to rock ‘n’ roll and American GIswho called it “pleased smoke.”

Reacting to pressure from the U.S. armed force– which blamed in your area grown cannabis for American soldiers getting high– along with the dissident undertones of pot culture, the Park Chung-hee military dictatorship stated that the drug was damaging the nation’s youth and made marijuana offenses punishable by death.

The routine’s anti-drug project included a string of prominent trials of stars, consisting of Shin Joong-hyun, a guitar player called South Korea’s “godfather of rock” who was tortured and institutionalized.

Cannabis usage is no longer a capital offense, however the tradition of that period has actually sustained. There are deep preconceptions around substance abuse and prevalent worries around the newly found schedule of methamphetamine, MDMA and other drugs, which are offered on the dark web or confidential messaging appsspent for with cryptocurrency and provided in contactless drop-offs.

A single dosage of methwhich would have cost around $75 a couple of years back, is now approximated to cost as low as $15.

In April, the conservative administration of President Yoon Suk-yeola previous district attorneyintroduced a multi-agency narcotics examination system led by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the most effective police body in the nation.

“The factor substance abuse to be pricey in South Korea was the threat expense– if you were captured, your life would be messed up,” Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon stated. “This administration is going to root out numerous wrongdoers and will come down on them so hard that they will squeal.”

Authorities made 17,817 drug arrests in 2015, up from 8,107 in 2018, with teens and individuals in their 20s accounting for the greatest, sharpest spikes.

A study by ballot business Hankook Research in December 2022 discovered that nearly 80% of South Koreans supported the drug war. A comparable portion associated substance abuse with “an absence of morals” and thought that, on top of the legal repercussions, celebs captured utilizing drugs was worthy of to suffer extra social or financial fallout.

For police, the federal government has actually provided clear rewards to score big wins.

In April, the nation’s cops chief revealed “substantial benefits” for the company’s leading entertainers– consisting of unique promos for whole groups– requiring both significant drug ring busts As awareness-raising efforts.

“That produces competitors amongst narcotics departments and includes pressure to produce outcomes,” stated Kim Hee-jun, the previous district attorney. “And prominent cases, like examinations into celebs or popular business figures, are a prime example of these type of extremely concerned efficiency results.”

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Lee would have comprehended that drug scandals can torpedo professions long before a guilty decision is even reached.

Fellow star Yoo Ah-in, presently on trial on charges of utilizing ketamine, cannabis and drugis now commonly considered personality non grata in the South Korean show business. 2 films and a Netflix series have actually forever been postponed, and he might likewise be on the hook for damages to marketers for triggering “social debate.”

Lee was never ever detained or charged, however in between late October and late November, cops offered him 4 drug tests, consisting of hair tests stated to discover substance abuse for as much as a year.

One test was undetermined and the rest were unfavorable.

“If it had actually been a routine individual, I believe the case would have likely been closed right there,” stated Kim Hee-jun, the previous district attorney. “It’s extremely challenging to prosecute a suspect without a favorable drug test when the dates of declared usage fall within that detection window.”

The examination of Lee stayed open.

“We examined the case according to basic procedures and the law,” the cops department stated in a composed declaration “In identifying whether a charge exists, drug examinations take into consideration not just checking outcomes, however likewise statements of included celebrations and forensic information.”

In late November, as papers started to question why the cops were pressing ahead with the examination with relatively little proof, the nationwide broadcaster KBS launched parts of a recording of a telephone call in between Lee and his accuser.

The 2 seemed flirting with each other. At one point, Kim guided the discussion towards drugs, in what some have actually translated as an effort to get Lee to incriminate himself. Lee’s reaction was sidetracked and noncommittal.

The source of the recording stays a secret. Incheon authorities have actually acknowledged that it was submitted as proof however have actually rejected dripping it.

Jang, Lee’s pal, thinks that this recording was the jeopardizing product utilized by Kim to obtain Lee, who had a partner and 2 children.

“Nobody truly understands what the nature of their relationship was,” Jang stated. “But he was a popular star with a household, and I believe the supervisor made use of that and the optics of the scenario to obtain him.”

KBS has actually protected its publication of the recording, others state the choice was the most affordable point in what they concern as frenzied, frequently prurient protection of Lee. In 2 months, South Korean media released almost 3,000 online report about Lee.

At a press conference held by Lee’s market coworkers in early January, vocalist and music executive Yoon Jong-shin asked, “Can KBS state, on its honor as a public broadcaster, that the personal discussion of the departed, which had absolutely nothing to do with the claims at hand, was truly journalism in the service of the general public interest?”

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Lee wasn’t the only target of his accuser. She likewise informed private investigators that Kwon Ji-yong, a well-known artist called G-dragonhad actually done drug at the bar she handled.

Authorities closed that examination in mid-December after the artist passed his drug tests and his accuser confessed that she had not in fact seen him take the drugs.

The authorities were not done with Lee. On the early morning of Dec. 23, he appeared at the Incheon police headquarters for his 3rd interrogation. Authorities rejected a demand from his legal representatives that he be permitted to get in the structure through an underground parking lot, so he needed to stroll through a crowd of press reporters.

Cops stated that the over night interrogation was organized with Lee’s approval in order to make sufficient time for concerns connected to the drug case along with his extortion case.

3 days later on, Lee requested for a polygraph test. Before it might be administered he was dead.

The Incheon authorities company is being examined for its possible function in the leakages about Lee’s case. Park and Kim, Lee’s accusers, are being tried out extortion charges. Kim is likewise on trial for supposedly taking meth and cannabis.

A union of show business figures, consisting of “Parasite” director Bong Joon-hoare now campaigning for strengthened personal privacy securities for topics of police examinations.

“Ultimately, the mindset of the public requirements to develop, to not anticipate celebs to be like pure, blank sheets of paper,” Jang stated. “But there is a requirement for some standard protect to avoid something like this from occurring once again.”

Jang remembered his pal as warm and kind, stating how Lee liked to buzz up his coworkers, reorganizing seats at dining establishments so a more youthful star had a possibility to shine.

Amidst the tide of eulogies, some drug professionals hoped that Lee’s death would start to alter the nationwide discussion around the nation’s punitive method to drugs.

That has actually not occurred.

“Other nations have actually embraced a rehabilitation-focused design, however South Korea has not,” stated Lim Sang-hyeon, the director of a drug treatment center in Gyeonggi province. “The public still sees drug users as bad guys or hazards to society instead of clients. Which’s since the enforcement of drug laws paints them that method.”

Kim Hee-jun stated that the occurrence has actually at least raised concerns that may ultimately assist inch public awareness forward.

“When I was a district attorney, I myself just ever believed you required to come down hard on drug users,” he stated. “But gradually, I saw the high recidivism rates, I looked for more info and concerned see the concern in regards to not simply criminal offense, however likewise of illness and dependency.”

In January, he released a book that intends to debunk teenage substance abuse. An exonerated G-Dragon accepted compose the foreword.

“Prejudice stands in the method of recovery and modification,” he composed. “To repair the heart of the issue, we need to start with avoidance and favorable education instead of law and penalty.”