There has long been controversy over the issue of suspension in businesses that sell alcohol to minors. Under the Food Sanitation Act and the Youth Protection Act, South Korea prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors and imposes imprisonment for up to two years, or fines of up to 20 million won. Administrative disposition such as suspension of business can also be imposed. However, these days, cases where minors buy liquor by borrowing other people's identification cards or forging identification cards themselves are increasing. Under these circumstances, no punishment is being made for minors who deceived the business owners, while the business owners are punished. Punishment for the sale of alcohol for minors now needs to be changed.
Compared to the past, juvenile delinquency is becoming more daring and manipulative. Of course, owners who sell alcoholic beverages should properly confirm that the buyer is not a minor and take responsibility not to sell alcoholic beverages to minors. However, the problem is that unlike in the past, when minors simply borrowed other people's identification cards to buy alcohol, the cases where minors counterfeit and falsify identification cards or steal other people's identification cards to buy alcohol are increasing. There are even places for buying counterfeited identification cards for minors. Furthermore, minors do not stop purchasing alcoholic beverages and report the owners on purpose or threaten them. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Foodservice Industry Association from 2010 to 2012, 78 percent of cases of business suspensions were actually caused by intentional reports by minors. In an interview of MBC News on August 23rd, 2021, a business owner who suffered from suspension said, ”I heard that minors even say ‘Let’s come to an agreement’, ‘If you give me some money, I won’t report you for selling alcohol to minors.’” In the meantime, under the Food Sanitation Act, an administrative disposition of a business owner can be exempted if the minor deceived the owner by stealing and forging identification cards, or if circumstances of assault or blackmail are recognized. But the important thing is that the owner is responsible for the proof. If the owner fails to prove illegal use or forgery of identification cards, or assault or intimidation by a minor, punishment is inevitable. As technology develops, various forgery skills are improving. The owner may take a long time to prove this fact and as the procedure is also complicated, it can be virtually impossible for the owners to avoid punishment. Eventually, the current law, which punishes and gives the burden of proof of the actions of minors only to the deceived owners, should be revised.
Under the current law, punishment for the sale of alcohol to minors has problems that increase the burden and damage of business owners. There should be a distinction between selling alcoholic beverages simply due to one's carelessness and selling them due to obviously illegal acts such as identity card forgery or intimidation. Otherwise, it negatively affects not only the owners who are punished but also employees and even the minors who purchase alcohol. In fact, according to Kukmin Ilbo, a store in Daegu, which was suspended in 2019 due to intentional reports by minors who felt burdened by the price of alcohol purchased, said, "If you drank because you wanted to drink, why didn’t you just tell us that you didn’t have money and say sorry. […] Due to the suspension of business, the kitchen staff, hall staff, and part-timers are all victims.” Hence, the government must make efforts to resolve these problems by amending the law promptly.