Doctor who delivered drugs to late actor Lee Sun Kyun gets 4 years prison sentence

Disclaimer: This article includes details of death and suicide.

In connection with the blackmail case involving the late Parasite actor Lee Sun Kyun, a 43-year-old anesthesiologist at a renowned hospital in Gangnam was sentenced to four years in prison for distributing illegal narcotics, according to a report by K-media tvReport. At a hearing on September 24, the Incheon District Court handed down the sentence. Prosecutors disclosed that the doctor, known only as A, had given medications, including methamphetamine and ketamine, for eight months, from December 2022 to August 2023.

The manager of an adult entertainment facility, identified as B, received the narcotics and used them to blackmail Lee Sun Kyun. If the actor didn’t pay 300 million KRW (about 225,000 USD), B had threatened to reveal their relationship.

B is currently on trial for the third time that he has administered drugs, in addition to drug-related crimes.

The prosecution emphasized that A obtained drugs for personal use by abusing his position in the medical sector. Noting that A attempted to postpone the trial by asserting that a crucial witness had only testified against him because of personal grievances, they denounced his lack of regret.

A’s defense team contended throughout the trial that he was unjustly associated with B and highlighted the fact that he had already lost his medical profession. A is also charged separately for using marijuana in January 2021 with a friend and for buying marijuana in liquid form later that same year.

During police screens, Lee Sun Kyun, who had been the subject of a drug use probe in late 2023, refuted all of the accusations and produced negative results. But the star unfortunately died in December 2023, and his body was found in his vehicle. In August 2024, the case pertaining to his drug use and blackmail was formally concluded after five of the case’s participants were found guilty.