Does South Korea have a drinking problem? Recent cases highlight ‘manly’ culture, need for alcohol law changes

The incidents point to a need to plug legal loopholes on alcohol in a country known for drinking problems, according to observers.

The Supreme Court has pointed to cases in which drivers involved in suspected drink-driving car accidents dodged punishment by downing more alcohol and claiming they only drank to fight distress and this led to the crash involving them.

Nonetheless, the Supreme Court last week overturned a lower court decision and acquitted a man of a 2019 drink-driving charge, even though he was suspected of consuming more alcohol after a car crash in a bid to tamper with intoxication tests.

A lower court found him guilty of drink-driving and sentenced him to a suspended six-month jail sentence.

But an appellate court overturned the decision in favour of the defendant, stressing the need to properly calculate his breath-analysed blood alcohol content (BAC) level.

The Supreme Court upheld the appeal court ruling but admitted that it was “not so rare” that drunk drivers drink more after they fall into car crashes to sabotage post-accident BAC tests and avoid punishments “as this case may suggest”.

“It is undesirable to let drunk drivers avoid criminal punishments this way”, it said, calling for new legislation to cope with such “intentional disruptions of law and order”.

Lawyer Lee Min told This Week in Asia that he had won similar court cases in favour of defendants.

“Some clients ask if it’s OK to assert that they drank [earlier] at home alone [after they caused accidents] but I say such allegations could be only counterproductive” he also wrote on his blog.

Another lawyer, Kim Han-bit, agreed a new law is needed to punish acts aimed at fudging test results, noting the refusal of breath-analysing tests is currently