Actress Shares Harrowing Trauma Of Government Crackdown On Artists During Cultural Blacklist
On November 7, KST, Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) officially dropped its appeal and accepted the second-trial ruling recognizing the government’s liability for the cultural blacklist case that occurred under Lee Myung Bak‘s administration. Actress Kim Gyu Ri, one of the 82 artists whose names were reportedly on the list, reflected on this decision through her social media account.
On November 9, KST, Kim posted on her Instagram, “The verdict has finally been finalized. The trauma is so severe that even hearing the word ‘blacklist’ makes me freeze up.” The actress went on to share several experiences related to this government blacklist that she said traumatized her for life.
View this post on Instagram
Recalling one incident, Kim stated, during one of her award show appearances for the movie Portrait of a Beauty, whenever she appeared on camera, she received a call from an unknown caller. In another instance, she had a project canceled on her the day she was set to sign the casting contract.
She admitted that at one point she was warned that the NIS had set up an office in her neighborhood and had her under constant watch.
My lawyer at the time, Representative Kim Yong Min, also asked me if anything strange had happened while my house was empty (since it was said that the NIS had entered some people’s homes). Fortunately, I shredded all my documents so there were no issues, but later I heard that other people in my building were fined because there was supposedly a problem with their trash bags. Maybe their garbage had even been searched. There were also strange people loitering in front of my house for days.
— Kim Gyu Ri
The actress even received death threats after criticizing the blacklist on social media.
After the news about the blacklist broke, I briefly expressed my feelings on social media, and the next day, I got a death threat saying, ‘If you don’t stay quiet, we’ll kill you.’ I also suffered from phone tapping, and so on.
— Kim Gyu Ri
Finally addressing the NIS’s statement, she spat back, “Who exactly did they apologize to? It feels like they just said it into thin air for the sake of the press. The wounds remain, and I just feel empty.”
She concluded her post by expressing her gratitude to her legal team and the seniors who had suffered alongside her due to the blacklist.
You can read more about the cultural blacklist case here:
