On May 18, actor Kim Sae-ron made headlines after she crashed into an electric transformer box while driving under the influence.

She fled the scene, but was soon arrested and is currently under investigation. Kim issued a handwritten apology two days after her arrest, and while many international fans are choosing to view the incident as a mistake she can learn from, the domestic public opinion remains ice cold.

This is not simply because Korean celebrities are expected to perfectly abide by moral standards in their personal lives or because Kim was known for her innocent image from her days as a child actor. Rather, Koreans’ reactions toward drunk driving has changed dramatically over the past decade.

In Korea, apart from violent crimes, driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol is commonly considered to be one of the worst offenses a star can commit. After slogans like “drunk driving is murder” gained traction, celebrities and non-celebrities alike found to have committed the crime are condemned “potential murderers.”

The extent of the damages of Kim’s crash, besides her own car, was only causing a partial power outage in the area, but many point out that Kim was lucky she did not hurt anyone, herself included. The crash happened during morning rush hour in a high-traffic area of Seoul, and damaging an electric transformer box can lead to fire and even explosions — which is why her case is being taken much more seriously than the average property damage charge.

Celebrities caught for DUI in recent years, such as former After School member Lizzy, also known as actor Park Su-young, and former AB6IX member Lim Young-min, took a severe hit to their public image and have found it nearly impossible to recover their popularity.

But it hasn’t always been like this. In fact, until the turn of the century, drunk driving was an extremely commonplace misdemeanor in the entertainment scene and was hardly considered a serious offense. It is not at all difficult to find one or two DUI records among celebrities who have been active since the early 2000s or before. Punishment was, and still is, considered just a slap on the wrist, as it rarely led to prison time. Stars who were caught driving drunk at the time did face criticism, but most were able to make a comeback and restore their image and careers back to normal after a few months of laying low, as a gesture of remorse.

Even today, cases of stars’ drunk driving are often viewed as less serious if it happened before 2010. For instance, when the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” was released last year, a post on an online community forum brought attention to the fact that the show’s lead actor, Lee Jung-jae, has two accounts of DUI on his record. Lee was caught driving while intoxicated in 1999, causing a car accident, then again in 2002, both of which made the news at the time. But after a bit of initial traction, the post was soon forgotten. Lee’s public image hardly took a hit, and the show went on to be successful both domestically and globally. Lee is one of the many veteran stars who currently enjoy popularity and favorable public perception despite their DUI record. Stars like Lee are not likened to murderers, as drunk drivers are in Korean society today.

According to pop culture critic Kim Heon-sik, the turning point that noticeably changed Korea’s public perception of drunk driving was the accident that killed a young man named Yoon Chang-ho in September 2018, which led to an anti-drunk driving legislation named after him. Yoon, at the time serving his mandatory military service, passed away after he was hit by a drunk driver in Busan. In his memory, Yoon’s friends and family launched a campaign to strengthen the punishment for drunk drivers, which resulted in the National Assembly passing the Yoon Chang-ho Act in late 2018.

“In the mobile age of today, victims’ families and friends can share information and footage of the accident, highlighting how dangerous drunk driving can be,” Kim said. “In recent years, the victims’ stories and the reality of drunk driving accidents were actively shared on online communities, social media and Blue House petition boards. That helped people empathize with victims and realize that it could also happen to themselves or their family members. It ingrained into people’s minds that drunk driving is not a small personal mistake, but a crime that can destroy others’ lives.”

Although the act was ruled unconstitutional in November of 2021 due to disputes over specific clauses, its impact on the collective mentality of Koreans remains strong. The younger generation especially tends to view the offence as a serious crime, likening it to murder.

“Especially because of Korea’s high population density, a drunk driver is very likely to hit pedestrians,” Kim continued. “That, combined with the Korean culture that is lenient toward consuming too much alcohol, has led Korea to see many accidents in which drunk drivers caused a lot of loss in human lives and property damage. The public tends to be less harsh if a celebrity was simply caught drunk driving by the police without causing real damage. But in Kim’s case, I believe she’ll have to face the consequences for a long time, if she can make a comeback at all.”

Many of Kim’s upcoming series, such as the Netflix's “Hunting Dogs” and SBS's “Trolley,” have either been postponed or simply dropped Kim from the cast. Kim faces further investigation and will have to financially compensate for the destroyed electric transformer box, but whether or not she will be able to escape the stigma of “potential murder” remains unclear.

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]