Actor Park Yoo-hwan, 30 and the younger brother of singer-actor Park Yoo-chun, was booked without detention by the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency on a charge of violating the Act on the Control of Narcotics.[1] Police say he smoked marijuana once with two other Koreans at a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, in December 2020, while he was there to make a guest appearance at his brother’s concert.[1] All three people admitted the allegation, and Park Yoo-hwan was due to be summoned for questioning.[1] A police officer said the case was under investigation and gave no further detail on the charge.[1]

The news that police were investigating Park Yoo-hwan for marijuana use was reported on 3 November 2021.[2]

On 28 January 2022 the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said it had sent Park Yoo-hwan to prosecutors without custody on the same charge.[3] One of the two Koreans who smoked with him was also sent to prosecutors without custody.[3] The other, who lives in Thailand, could not travel to Korea because of the COVID-19 pandemic and was to be questioned by police once he arrived.[3] Soompi’s English account of the same referral named the Narcotics Unit of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency as the body that handled it.[4]

Park Yoo-hwan did not release music during the investigation, but his brother put out a three-track mini album, Da Capo, on 5 November 2021 and drew online criticism for the timing.[2]