Top court finalizes 25-year prison sentence for infamous Korean drug lord
Published: 02 Dec. 2025, 16:09
Updated: 03 Dec. 2025, 14:13
![Kim Hyung-ryul, a drug kingpin arrested in Vietnam, is extradited through Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport on July 19, 2022. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/03/37c138a7-f4ac-4e93-b8fe-df82a1cac115.jpg)
Kim Hyung-ryul, a drug kingpin arrested in Vietnam, is extradited through Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport on July 19, 2022. [YONHAP]
The Supreme Court on Tuesday finalized a 25-year prison sentence for Kim Hyung-ryul, an infamous drug trafficker who was wanted in 13 countries at the time of his arrest, for smuggling large quantities of methamphetamine and other narcotics into Korea from Vietnam.
The top court also affirmed an order requiring Kim to complete 80 hours of drug rehabilitation education and to forfeit 693 million won ($472,000).
Kim left for Vietnam in October 2018 and began shipping drugs to Korea the following year, according to prosecutors.
Court documents show he used social media platforms including X, formerly known as Twitter; Tumblr; Telegram and WeChat to arrange shipments of methamphetamine, ketamine and other narcotics with an estimated value of about 7 billion won. He went by the alias "Sara Kim," derived from his Telegram ID "salagim."
Kim relied on several methods to conceal drugs in parcels sent to Korea. In March 2021, he hid methamphetamine inside helmets and sent them as air-express packages. One shipment contained 411 grams (14.5 ounces) of liquid meth inside a helmet, while another involved taping 170 grams of meth to the inside of the helmet before sending it to Seoul and Gimpo, Gyeonggi, disguised as ordinary mail.
Prosecutors linked Kim to Park Wang-yul, a Korean national who murdered three people in the Philippines in 2016 and later escaped from prison before running a trafficking ring on Telegram under the name “Jeonsegye,” which translates to “worldwide.”
Kim is also linked to Choi Jung-ok, a North Korean defector accused of drug distribution. Their ties contributed to Kim’s reputation among regional investigators as one of Southeast Asia’s three most infamous drug lords.
Philippine authorities arrested Park in October 2020 after his escape from prison, and he remains held there. Prosecutors in Korea said Kim appeared to have helped Park rebuild a drug network immediately after the jailbreak.
![Police take custody of Kim Hyung-ryul in Vietnam before his extradition to Korea in this file photo provided by the Korean National Police Agency on July 19, 2022. [KOREAN NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/03/cedffb4e-1a9a-4a29-b449-0ff12cab7394.jpg)
Police take custody of Kim Hyung-ryul in Vietnam before his extradition to Korea in this file photo provided by the Korean National Police Agency on July 19, 2022. [KOREAN NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY]
Vietnamese police arrested Kim in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2022 in cooperation with Korean investigators, who then brought him back to Korea to face trial.
A district court in November last year sentenced him to 25 years, saying “drug crimes are difficult to detect and the hallucinogenic and addictive nature of narcotics severely harms individuals and negatively affects society.”
An appeals court in July maintained the term, ruling that his conduct and illicit proceeds showed “a very heavy level of culpability.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld his conviction for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, the Narcotics Control Act and the Act of Special Cases concerning the Prevention of Illegal Trafficking in Narcotics.
Kim’s son, initially convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to five years, was acquitted on appeal after judges found he “may not have known the case involved narcotics.” The Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM JUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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