Kim Ho-joong Confirmed for Early Release on Parole While Serving Sentence for Drunk Driving Hit-and-Run…Freed 30 Days Ahead of Schedule

From the bench of judgment to parole, the weight of freedom brought forward by 5 months

'Drunk driving hit-and-run' suspect Singer Kim Ho-joong, who had been behind bars, is coming out of confinement with 5 months left before his full-term release. After passing the Ministry of Justice's 'parole review', he moved up the end of his incarceration life that had been slated for November to the 30th.

According to his agency, he recently cleared the hurdle of a strict review and won a chance to return to society. It was in December of last year that he was listed as a candidate for the 'Christmas special pardon' review, only to suffer an unfavorable ruling, but now he has finally been able to leave prison clothes behind.

Let's set the clock back to May 9, 2024, at 11:44 p.m. in the middle of Apgujeong-ro in Seoul's Gangnam District, where he invaded the center line, crashed into an oncoming taxi, and then fled. In the aftermath of the accident, the circumstances in which he tried to systematically conceal the crime by urging his manager, Mr. Jang, to 'fake a surrender' drew condemnation as a serious 'obstruction of justice' act, going beyond a simple traffic accident.

His falsehoods, which had firmly denied the fact that he was drunk at the start of the incident, were exposed within 10 days. In the end, after he admitted to the entire offense and was indicted while in custody, he was transferred from Seoul Detention Center and, starting in August of last year, served his sentence at 'Mangmang Detention Center', a private prison located in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. Against the backdrop of the public's cold gaze, attention is focused on what variables his early release obtained will play in his next moves.