Photo: Jo Jin-ung flies back with the remains of General Hong Beom-do. Credit: KBS.
The popular actor Jo Jin-ung 조진웅 announced his retirement on December 5, after the tabloid Dispatch reported that Jo was implicated in multiple carjackings, kidnappings and sexual assaults during his teenage years. Because juvenile criminal records are sealed, much of the report was based on circumstantial evidence.
Jo made a partial admission to having committing a crime as a teenager, though he denied involvement in a sexual assault. The 49-year-old actor gained popularity in the 2010s with major roles in blockbusters such as A Hard Day 끝까지 간다, The Admiral: Roaring Currents 명량 and The Handmaiden 아가씨, as well as hit TV drama series including Signal.
Thanks to his role as an independence fighter in the 2015 movie Assassination 암살, he was selected as a special envoy to Kazahkstan 카자흐스탄 to recover the remains of the famed independence fighter Hong Beom-do 홍범도. (See previous coverage, “General Hong Returns.”) He has since gained a reputation as an outspoken liberal among actors, including being among the first to criticize Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s coup attempt in December 2024.
Some Democratic Party lawmakers tried to defend Jo. Assembly Member Kim Won-i 김원이 asked “"How long must he be held responsible for the mistakes of his youth?” Meanwhile, the People Power Party’s Na Gyeong-won 나경원 said the conservative opposition will propose a bill permitting the disclosure of serious crimes on juvenile criminal records.
