Television Celebrity Amy Must Leave Korea By Year's End

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Korean-American entertainer Amy must leave Korea on December 30. The television celebrity, known for her appearance on the reality show "Bad Girls," faces deportation to Guam.

According to the Korean media outlet Insight, the Korean Immigration Office issued a statement on December 22, letting Amy know how long she could remain in the country and where she would have to go.

Amy had planned to travel to China following her deportation but as she holds U.S. citizenship, she is being sent to Guam which is a U.S. territory. If she wants to go to China, said the Immigration Office, she will have to apply once she is in Guam.

Amy, whose real name is Lee Yoon Ji, has worked in the Korean entertainment industry since 2008. In 2012 she was convicted of abusing propofol, a sedative that produces euphoria and hallucinations. Recreational use is dangerous. The drug was implicated in the death of American star Michael Jackson.

Amy was sentenced to prison for eight months and given a two-year probationary period. She promised to leave the country if she broke the drug laws again. According to Korea's Migration Law, a foreigner can be ordered to leave the country if they break the law.If Amy had completed her probationary period without incident she would have been allowed to stay in Korea.

"She was indicted her without detention because she turned out to have quit injecting propofol," the prosecutor's' office told the Korea Herald.

However, she was charged with using Propofol a second time. She reportedly received pills from someone she met at the probation office. That person was also charged.

Amy was fined $4300 for her second offense and ordered to leave the country. She appealed, saying she would renounce her U.S. citizenship, because she wanted to live near her family in Korea.  On November 25 she lost that appeal.



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