Drunken Driver Gets 5 Yrs in S. Korea for Death of Japanese Woman

Seoul, May 13 (Jiji Press)–A South Korean court has sentenced a man to five years in prison for drunken driving that left a Japanese tourist in her 50s dead and her daughter in her 30s seriously injured in Seoul last year. The ruling, handed down by Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday, came against a seven-year prison sentence demanded by public prosecutors. The court also ordered the confiscation of the man’s vehicle. According to South Korean media, the district court said that the drunken driving led to irreversible consequences and that severe punishment is inevitable for the defendant. In deciding the duration of the prison sentence, the court took account of the fact that the defendant has admitted to his charges of dangerous driving resulting in death and injury and paid settlement money to relatives of the victims. The defendant caused the accident at a crosswalk near the Dongdaemun downtown area in the South Korean capital on the night of Nov. 2, 2025. He was driving a car after drinking three bottles of “shochu” spirits. In Seoul, four people, including two Japanese nationals, suffered injuries as a vehicle driven by a drunken man crashed into a sidewalk in March this year. According to the Korean National Police Agency, the number of traffic accidents caused by drunken drivers in South Korea in 2025 came to 10,351, about 4.5 times that in Japan. The recidivism rate for drunken driving tops 40 pct. Under the current South Korean law, drunken driving resulting in death is punishable by imprisonment for an indefinite period or of three years or longer. But the Supreme Court of Korea’s Sentencing Commission limits prison terms for drunken driving leading to death to two to five years in principle and to four to eight years even for cases in which there are aggravating factors. Against the backdrop, there are calls for tougher penalties. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]