Police Conduct Search and Seizure at Entertainment Venue Visited by Kim Ho-jung
Trot singer Kim Ho-jung (33), who is under police investigation for hit-and-run charges, has been found to have circumstantial evidence of drinking alcohol before the accident. This is the result of an analysis by the National Forensic Service (NFS).
According to the police on the 18th, the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul received the urine test results from the NFS the day before, indicating that Kim was judged to have consumed alcohol before the accident. The NFS reportedly stated, "Considering that about 20 hours passed from the accident to the urine collection, alcohol metabolites (byproducts produced during the body's process of metabolizing alcohol) exceeding the criteria for determining drinking were detected, leading to the conclusion that there was alcohol consumption before the accident."
Earlier, Kim responded to the police investigation only 17 hours after the accident occurred. Although the breathalyzer test showed no alcohol level, the test was conducted 17 hours after the accident, so the result was not meaningful. However, the agency strongly denied drunk driving based on this. To verify Kim’s alcohol consumption, the police conducted a dawn raid on the entertainment establishment he visited on the day of the accident on the 18th. It was confirmed that Kim stayed at the establishment for about three hours before the accident. Kim’s side has denied drunk driving, stating, "He only stopped by to greet and just touched the glass with his lips."
On the evening of the 9th, around 11:40 p.m., Kim caused a collision with an oncoming taxi while changing lanes in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and then fled the scene. About two hours after the accident, a representative from his agency turned himself in wearing Kim’s clothes. This raised suspicions of an attempt to switch drivers.
Amid suspicions of hit-and-run expanding to include drunk driving and driver substitution, Kim appointed attorney Cho Nam-gwan, who served as acting Prosecutor General, as his defense lawyer. Attorney Cho previously served as Director of the Prosecutor’s Office at the Ministry of Justice and Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. In 2020, when then-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl was suspended, Cho acted as Prosecutor General. Cho also worked with Lee Chang-soo, the newly appointed Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which is handling the Gangnam Police Station case, at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. After leaving the prosecution in April 2022 following his final appointment as head of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, Cho opened a private law office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and is currently practicing as an attorney.
The entertainment bar Kim visited on the day of the accident is known as a so-called "Tenpro," where female hostesses accompany customers at their tables. This establishment promotes itself as a high-end, membership-based entertainment venue. Kim rode home in a car driven by a designated driver affiliated with this establishment, then switched cars and drove himself to another drinking venue, during which the accident occurred.
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