Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted an 18-year-old woman without detention on 18 October 2019 on a charge of violating the Narcotics Control Act over cannabis and other drugs brought into South Korea.[1] The case was assigned to the 15th criminal division of Incheon District Court, but no first hearing date had been set.[1] The woman was a daughter of Hong Jeong-wook, a former lawmaker of the Hannara Party, the predecessor of the Liberty Korea Party.[1] Prosecutors said they could not disclose the specific allegations because the suspect was a minor.[2]
On 27 September 2019 she arrived at Incheon International Airport on a flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, having brought liquid cannabis cartridges and other drugs in her luggage.[1] JTBC reported that she hid the cartridges and other drugs in a travel bag and in her clothes pockets.[2] An X-ray check during arrival immigration screening flagged her, and the accounts also say she brought in LSD, a paper drug placed on the tongue, and stimulants.[1]
She admitted all the allegations in questioning but said she had no intention of distributing the cannabis she brought in.[1] Prosecutors had urgently arrested her and sought a detention warrant, but a court refused it, citing no risk of destroying evidence or fleeing and noting she was a minor with no criminal record.[1] The detention warrant was sought on 30 September 2019 and refused, and the EToday account says she was also accused of having smoked the cannabis several times abroad.[3] The Fact reported that prosecutors requested a detention warrant for her on 30 September 2019 and the court refused it, taking into account that she was a minor with no prior record.[4]
