SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, known for his role in the smash hit movie “Parasite” but recently hit with drug allegations, died Wednesday in an apparent suicide.
In a country where high-profile suicides have made global headlines in recent years, the death of Mr. Lee, 48, created immediate national media attention.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that police found Mr. Lee dead in his car at a mountainside park in Seoul. A charcoal heating briquette, a common instrument for Korean suicides via carbon monoxide poisoning, was found in the vehicle.
Local news had reported that police questioned Mr. Lee during the Christmas weekend about alleged drug use. Mr. Lee reportedly requested a lie detector during the questioning, and his drug tests proved negative.
Reports said Mr. Lee was tricked into taking drugs by a bar hostess in Seoul’s Gangnam area and then blackmailed.
Mr. Lee gained acting fame with a breakthrough role in the 2007 South Korean television drama series “Behind the White Tower.” He catapulted to global fame as the wealthy family patriarch in the 2019 black comedy “Parasite.”
PHOTOS: Celebrity deaths in 2023: The famous faces we've lost
The South Korean film’s take on middle-class angst captured the world’s pre-COVID zeitgeist. In 2020, it became the first foreign-language film to win the best picture Oscar in Hollywood.
The peculiarities of Mr. Lee’s case raise questions for family, friends and authorities. The depressing frequency of suicides in South Korea, widely viewed as one of the world’s most successful nations, is a source of deep hand-wringing for the country’s wider society.
South Korean self-killings
South Korea has the highest per capita suicide rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international forum of 37 democracies with market-based economies.
The South Korean suicide rate of 24.1 per 100,000 people is more than double the OECD average of 9.7 per 100,000. The elderly are most at risk, but suicides of high-profile people make headlines. South Korea observers see multiple factors at play.
Over the past half-century, South Korea has achieved middle-class prosperity and full democracy. National behaviors, aspirations and values are largely in sync with the West’s.
With communal rather than individualistic traditions, South Korean social culture manifests in intense peer pressure. Some analysts say suicide is an escape from shame or a way to protest allegations of bad behavior.
Particularly at risk are entertainers, who are expected to be squeaky clean. Mortalities in this segment include popular actress Choi Jin-sil, who died by suicide in 2008, and Kim Jong-hyun, a vocalist of the South Korean boy band Shinhee, who died by suicide in 2017.
Under the skin
Outside observers often say conformity is built into South Korean society.
“The term in Korean for the public gaze is, ‘in other people’s eyes,’” said David Tizzard, who teaches Korean studies at Seoul Women’s University. “When you do the recycling, you are being watched, so you do it properly. When you go out, you dress up, as you are being seen.”
When Mr. Tizzard’s foreign students complain about stares in public, he advises them that they are not alone: “That’s the way it is here.”
Celebrities are held to exceptionally high standards.
Take BTS. One reason for the boy band’s global success is its vanilla image with well-behaved lads — very different from the “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” lifestyle pursued by many Western contemporaries.
“Celebrity expectations in Korea are very different than in Western countries,” said Michael Breen, the Seoul-based author of “The New Koreans.”
“We almost admire people who behave badly and whose lives are a mess, and then there is a redemption story,” Mr. Breen said. “But in Korea, there is no admiration for someone who behaves badly.”
Attitudes toward drugs are unforgiving. In Western health systems, addiction is widely seen and treated as a health or mental health issue. In Korea, it is criminalized.
That generates high pressures in a judiciary where authorities have considerable leeway in garnering confessions. In a nation where recreational drug abuse is considered criminal, authorities are empowered to gain convictions.
Prosecution reform is a longtime political hot potato in South Korea. Many believe the system favors investigators over defendants.
Mr. Lee reportedly spent 19 hours under police questioning.
In the face of high conviction rates, “many commit suicide once they come to the attention of the justice system,” Mr. Breen said.
The combination of public shaming and the power of the prosecution are factors in some high-profile suicides.
Those include the 2009 suicide of Roh Moo-hyun, a former president whose family faced a corruption probe, and the 2020 suicide of Park Won-soon, a mayor of Seoul who faced allegations of sexual harassment.
“Suicide is sometimes used in Korea as a form of protest or to demonstrate innocence,” Mr. Tizzard said. “It clears the name.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.