Trigger Warning: Suicide related
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/12/parasite-director-bong-joon-ho-leads-artist-outcry-over-death-of-south-korean-actor?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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    Thanks, I had not heard before that the SK administration blames the Itaewon crowd disaster on drug use, and is using that as part of the reason for their recent drug crackdowns.

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      It’s always “something else” and “someone else” and never just the government itself mishandling and misjudging a situation. The government is never at fault in Korea—in many places, for that matter. Saying that the Itaewon crushing incident is because ‘resources were diverted because of media coverage of the main event (Hallowe’en celebrations after lockdowns)’ and that people were high on drugs is actually quite the disgusting insult, imho

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      It is disgusting, untrue and just inhuman. This administration is so regressive and dangerous. It bear remembering that SK only relatively recently emerged from their military dictatorships because of the blood, sweat and tears of those who were vilified as North Korean spies and terrorists as well as drug-users. This is straight from their playbook. One of the links I posted a while ago from Hani.co.uk had this to say:
      “ The reason the celebrity drug allegations and incidents are stirring up conspiracy theories is because of South Korea’s history, where dictatorships in past eras exploited drug-related issues to redirect the public’s political attention”. This re-direction has been alleged to include the recent celebrity crackdown.

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        I think all of this drug-related crackdown started as far back as even the Burning Sun scandal. Not to say that the people involved were innocent—they’ve been proven guilty… One of which, Seungri, was even tried in military court, which is even more strict than S.Korea’s court of public opinion, allegedly— but that the whole thing was definitely a cover-up for something. I read somewhere that it was a cover-up for the internal conflicts that were taking place at the time within Samsung Corp., and we all know how highly S.Korea think of the rich and famous (very on brand with their “keeping up with appearances” society). I’ve read opinion pieces about LSK’s case also being a cover-up about something that has happened— maybe still happening?— politically, and I’m not surprised

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          This playbook predates the Burning Sun Scandal. The DB site doesn’t let me post a quote because of who knows what but this link mentions the political precedent set by the military dictatorships in Korea in using such tactics to deflect attention from their political scandals and failures:
          https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1115767.html
          Is to an article which mentions

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            The Korean democracy is still very young and exists because of the blood, sweat and tears shed by the democracy activists. Given how many western countries in what we perceive of/are told are strong democracies have been doing – from waging illegal wars leading to the destabilisation of the middle east to electing charlatans, racists and misogynists like Trump etc, no wonder nascent democracies like SK are struggling to establish accountability and transparency.

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            Oh yes, theory of using LSK’s case as a cover-up about the bullying is what I read.

            It’s a repeated vicious cycle through and through that anyone with half a sense of consciousness can see right through and which one can see the government isn’t doing anything about nor does it feel like they intentionally want to do anything about it, it’s very apparent

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