Musical Actor Nam Kyung-ju, Facing Rape Allegations, Has Past Drunk Driving and Time at Samchung Re-education Camp Dug Up

According to The Financial News, as first-generation musical actor Nam Kyung-ju has been sent to prosecutors without detention on suspicion of rape, his past convictions for drunk driving and driving without a license are drawing renewed attention.
According to Maeil Broadcasting Network (MBN), Dispatch and others on the 11th, Seoul Bangbae Police Station referred Nam Kyung-ju to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office last month on charges of sexual intercourse by abuse of authority.
Nam Kyung-ju is accused of raping a woman, identified as A, in Seoul last year.
A reportedly escaped from the scene of the alleged crime and called the 112 police emergency number.
Nam Kyung-ju is said to have denied the allegations during police questioning, but police concluded that the charges were substantiated and sent the case to prosecutors.
Speaking to Dispatch, Nam Kyung-ju acknowledged, "It is true that an investigation is currently under way," but he declined to comment on the specific allegations.
Nam Kyung-ju’s social networking service (SNS) accounts have been shut down, and no official statement has been released yet.
As news of the case spread, his past record of drunk driving and driving without a license has also resurfaced.
In December 2002, Nam Kyung-ju was caught in a drunk driving crackdown and had his license revoked after accumulating too many penalty points, and in 2003 he was again caught driving without a license. In April 2004, he was booked without detention on suspicion of driving a passenger car registered under his mother’s name while still unlicensed.
At the time, Nam Kyung-ju reportedly stated, "I had something urgent to take care of, so I had no choice but to drive."
In addition, an anecdote about Nam Kyung-ju’s time at the Samchung re-education camp, which he shared on KBS 2TV’s "Park Joong-hoon Show, Sunday Night in Korea" in April 2009, is being brought up again.
At the time, Nam Kyung-ju explained, "Back then, schools were required to send two students each who were considered difficult to discipline. I stepped in to stop an older student from beating a younger one, ended up at the police substation, and was eventually dragged off to the Samchung re-education camp." He went on, "I was there for quite a long time, and it was extremely harsh," recalling, "We did the kind of disciplinary drills you get in the military every single day."
He then added, "It was a time when a lot of absurd things happened, and I sometimes think I just had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," and opened up, "In the end, having gone through the Samchung re-education camp had a positive effect on me, but I still don’t know if there was any real reason I absolutely had to go."
The following year, in January 2010, his older brother, fellow musical actor Nam Kyung-eup, also mentioned that his younger brother had been sent to the Samchung re-education camp, during a press conference for the play "Rain Man."
Meanwhile, Nam Kyung-ju, a leading first-generation musical theater actor representing Korea alongside figures such as Choi Jung-won and Kolleen Park, made his debut in 1984 with the musical "Porgy and Bess." He has appeared in numerous productions, including "Les Misérables," "Grease" and "42nd Street," and in 2019 he won the Best Actor Award at the 13th Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF). He currently serves as an Associate Professor in the School of Performing Arts at Hongik University.
newssu@fnnews.com Kim Soo-yeon Reporter