Korean Entertainment Industry Forms Solidarity Council After Parasite Actor’s Tragic Death

The Cultural and Artistic Solidarity Council (tentative name) has delivered a statement to the National Police Agency, KBS, and the National Assembly.

On the afternoon of the 15th, the Cultural and Artistic Solidarity Council visited the National Police Agency, KBS, and the National Assembly to deliver a statement titled “Demands of Cultural Artists Concerning the Death of the Late Actor Lee Sun Kyun,” which was announced on the 12th.

The delivery of the statement was handled by Ko Young Jae, representative of the Korean Independent Film Association; Jung Sang Jin, representative of the Film Importers and Distributors Association; Choi Jung Hwa, representative of the Korean Film Producers Association, and Jang Won Seok, representative of BA Entertainment affiliated with the Korean Film Producers Association.

In the statement, the Cultural and Artistic Solidarity Council demanded a thorough investigation into the investigation process by the investigating authorities from the National Police Agency, “deletion of articles that do not match the reporting purpose” from KBS, and “enactment and amendment of existing laws for the protection of the rights of cultural artists” from the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Previously, the Cultural and Artistic Solidarity Council released a statement co-signed by 29 organizations, and later, the Korean Film Critics Association also expressed its intention to participate, with 30 organizations participating in the joint statement. The number of individual signatories, including former Busan International Film Festival Executive Chairman Kim Dong Ho, Director Park Chan Wook, and actors Yoon Yeo Jung, Song Kang Ho, Ryu Seung Ryong, Hwang Jung Min, Jung Woo Sung, and Kim Nam Gil, grew from about 2,000 as of the 12th to 2,831 as of January 17th.

In the future, the Cultural and Artistic Solidarity Council plans to officially launch a solidarity council to fulfill the demands specified in the statement and make various efforts to protect the rights of cultural artists so that such an incident does not happen again.