“I wish to apologize to everyone with a shameful heart,” the BTS member wrote in a letter uploaded to fan community service Weverse.
“I deeply apologize for disappointing and hurting fans and everyone who has loved me due to my wrongdoing. I have done something so wrong after forgetting that I should be paying back all the love I have received with the right actions.”
In the letter, which came 18 days after his first official apology on Aug. 7, Suga admitted to drunk-driving an e-scooter on the pedestrian zone and “confusing everyone with the first apology,” where he referred to the scooter as a “kick board,” which refer to the scooters without seats in Korea.
“I have put a major scratch in the precious memories that the members [of BTS] and fans have made together, and also damaged the name of BTS. I cannot fully express how regretful and agonizing I feel to have harmed the members and the team. I am so sorry to put the members, who have always trusted me, through all this.”
Suga repeatedly apologized and concluded the letter by saying, “I will accept with humility all the criticism and punishment that will come my way.”
The letter came two days after the 31-year-old BTS member, whose real name is Min Yoon-gi, was questioned at the Yongsan Police Station in central Seoul on Friday over an alleged DUI case that took place on Aug. 6.
The singer was investigated for the first time on Aug. 6 for allegedly driving an electric scooter under the influence of alcohol in Yongsan District, central Seoul, the same day.
Suga’s blood alcohol level when he was caught driving under the influence was 0.227 percent, high enough to qualify for a revocation of his driver’s license — a punishment imposed from a threshold of 0.08 percent.
The singer is currently fulfilling his mandatory military service as a social service agent, a role that typically involves a regular daily work schedule, allowing him to return home after work hours.
The BTS member is scheduled to complete his service in June next year. The Military Manpower Administration said it will not penalize Suga because the incident did not take place while he was on duty.
BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
