South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun endured 19 hours of police interrogation on Christmas Eve – a violation of police “human rights” provisions – before his apparent suicide the following Wednesday, Korean outlets reported this weekend.
The news agency Yonhap reported that Lee spent Saturday night into the early morning hours of Christmas Eve at a police station in Incheon facing an interrogation over accusations of drug use. A woman identified as a bar hostess had denounced to police that Lee ingested marijuana and unspecified other drugs at her home; Lee’s attorneys insisted that he had been blackmailed and did not knowingly ingest any drugs. Police drug tests did not reveal any evidence that Lee had consumed drugs.
Lee was a prolific actor known best in the West for his prominent role in the Academy Award-winning film Parasite. He was found dead on Wednesday in a car in Seoul. Police have revealed that he left what appears to be a suicide note in his home and authorities found a charcoal briquette in his car, an indication he likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
South Korea has a growing recent history of high-profile suicides, many of them similarly employing charcoal. Multiple Korean pop (K-pop) singers, artists, and politicians have been found to have committed suicide in the last five years, some as young as 25 and several explicitly mentioning the pressures of fame and constant media surveillance in the notes they left behind. Korean celebrities are often forced to make humiliating public apologies for a variety of perceived slights, from accusations of drug use to the breakdown of personal romantic relationships. Media outlets effusively cover the details of celebrities’ daily lives.
In one particularly tragic month for Korean entertainment, between October and November 2019, two pop stars, singers Goo Hara and Choi Jin-ri, known by her stage name Sulli, committed suicide. Sulli, 25, committed suicide in October and Goo, a friend, was forced to travel to promote her work abroad, obliging her to miss the funeral. Goo had apologized profusely for a prior failed suicide attempt before successfully taking her life in November 2019 at age 28.
Shortly before his suicide, Lee faced criminal charges of alleged drug use, which celebrity news reporters breathlessly documented.
“Lee is suspected of using marijuana and other illegal drugs at the home of a hostess working at a high-end bar in Seoul’s Gangnam district on multiple occasions since early this year,” Yonhap reported on December 24, following the conclusion of the 19-hour interrogation. “He was previously questioned twice, on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, on the same case. The overnight questioning of Lee will be the last, the police said.”
Gangnam is a wealthy district of Seoul known for its vibrant, expensive nightlife. South Korean celebrities often frequent the area, attracting police attention.
Lee’s case expanded beyond a simple drug probe when the actor accused the hostess and a third party of plotting a blackmail plot against him and “tricking” him into ingesting drugs. South Korean media identified one of the drugs in question as marijuana but did not specify the others. Police arrested the unnamed hostess and reportedly filed for an arrest warrant for the third party.
The onerous questioning and constant public scrutiny had taken a clear toll on Lee. In Yonhap’s Sunday report, the outlet noted that “a police investigation cannot take place from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. to safeguard human rights, but the police said they received consent from the actor for an overnight investigation.” It also reported that Lee was forced to address journalists after emerging from the overnight interrogation on Sunday morning.
“I feel like it is a bit too late, but I’ve finished the questioning by the police about the blackmail case,” he told them outside of the police offices where the interrogation took place. “I hope the police wisely determine which statements are more reliable between mine and the blackmailers.'”
Shortly before his suicide, Lee had requested that police not allow celebrity reporters to attend his final questioning, but they ignored his request even though “the press affairs guidelines of police prohibit the exposure of individuals under investigation to photographing or filming during both the investigative process and their appearance for questioning.”
“During all three rounds of Lee’s police appearances, including the first on Oct. 28, Lee stood on the press photo line, drawing intense media coverage,” Yonhap observed on Thursday. Attorneys for Lee reportedly told police the media scrutiny had made the actor feel “burdened.”
Following the discovery of his body on Wednesday, Lee’s manager told reporters that he had left what appeared to be a suicide note in which he apologized to his family and his managing agency.
Lee’s family requested privacy in their time of grief and have made his funeral private. The requests have gone ignored.
“Much pain has occurred due to certain media outlets’ abrupt visits to the late actor’s house, agency office and funeral,” Hodu&U Entertainment, Lee’s former representative agency, said in a statement on Thursday. “The sudden visits of people identifying themselves as YouTubers, day and night, have made the situation unbearable and brutal.”
“We ask with the utmost sincerity that you all consider the agony of the surviving family and colleagues as they send off their loved one,” the statement concluded.
