'Soju should not exist': Surgeon warns of addiction risk from cheap, strong alcohol

Click here for more articles by Kormedi.com. A practicing surgeon has issued a strong warning about the dangers of soju — a popular traditional Korean alcohol that is now mass manufactured — drawing on his own experience of severe alcohol addiction. Lee Jun-suh, a hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon, appeared on the YouTube channel Doctor Dinho on Tuesday and said, "Soju is a drink that should not exist." "Its alcohol content is far too high for its price, fueling alcohol addiction," he said. Gastroenterologist Kim Tae-kyun agreed, saying, "At that price and concentration, shouldn't soju be considered a drug rather than an alcoholic beverage?" Lee said, "Alcoholic drinks like this type of diluted soju are uncommon. The availability of soju makes it far too easy for people to drink alcohol." Lee, who has overcome alcohol addiction, said he once underestimated the severity of his own dependence even while treating patients with end-stage liver and pancreatic diseases. "Even as I treated terminally ill patients, I thought, 'I'm different from them,'" he said. "At the time, there was a social at