According to initial reports, BTS Suga was taken to Yonhap Police Station on Tuesday, August 6, 2024 (KST). He was “alone, fallen off the kickboard and on the streets” when the police found him. When the officers approached him for help, they smelled alcohol on the singer and filed a case. However, the case got complicated with new findings in the report.
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Full details of BTS Suga’s DUI case
In South Korea, where electric kickboards require a driving license and strict traffic rules, rapper Suga was involved in a DUI case after falling off a kickboard due to alcohol. A Breathalyzer test showed his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was above the limit of 0.08%.
Suga claimed that he had knee pain and had only drunk a glass of beer before briefly sitting on the kickboard. Following this, BTS’s representative company BigHit Music released an official statement apologizing for the artist’s actions and confirmed that his license had been revoked and he was fined. Suga also posted an apology on the Weverse platform.
However, the matter escalated when it was discovered that the model Suga was riding was not an electric kickboard but an electric scooter with a seat, or the Korean equivalent of a scooter bike. Yonsan’s report also stated that no fines or license cancellations have been issued yet, which contradicts BigHit Company and Suga’s apology statement.
ARMY argued that the reason the case was initially mishandled was due to Suga being a K-pop celebrity. However, the police department said that when they found the rapper they did not recognize Suga as a member of the globally renowned group BTS at the time of the incident.
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BigHit downplays Suga’s DUI incident
While the international military debated whether it was a serious offense, the Korean military condemned BigHit for downplaying Suga’s DUI case. On August 8 (KST), Big Hit released another apology for their previous oversight and assured that they did not intend to “downplay” the incident.
According to Dispatch, on August 9 (KST), Yongsan Station said that Suga’s vehicle was not a personal mobility device and was classified as a “motorized vehicle.” The Daechwita singer will now face a criminal investigation similar to an automobile DUI case. Later in the evening, according to Donga Ilbo, Suga’s blood alcohol concentration was recorded at 0.227%, eight times higher than the limit set in Korea of 0.03%.
There has been no comment or statement from Suga or BigHit regarding the new BAC revelations or the revocation of their license.
