South Korean actor Jung Eun-woo dies at 39, made cryptic social media post before death

South Korean actor Jung Eun-woo, known for his roles in K-dramas One Well-Raised Daughter (2013 to 2014) and The Return Of Hwang Geum-bok (2015), died on Feb 11. He was 39.

His family confirmed his death, but its cause has not been disclosed. Jung’s funeral is set for Feb 13 at New Koryo Hospital Funeral Hall in the city of Gimpo in South Korea.

His last Instagram post on Feb 10 featured three photos. The first was of the late Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung, who died in 2003 at the age of 46 by suicide. The second was of deceased British singer Amy Winehouse, who died from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at age 27.

The last photo was of himself. This post was captioned: “I miss you, I envy you, I regret it... PIR.BG”

While there was no explanation for what “PIR.BG” stood for, some netizens believe this phrase could be an anagram for “GB.RIP”, a possible shorthand for “Goodbye, Rest In Peace”. Jung has more than 8,000 followers on the platform.

In response to his post, American pop artist Nancy Lang, who is of Korean descent, wrote on Feb 11: “I just heard the news. I didn’t even know that these pictures from the day before were signals. My heart hurts so much and I’m so sad.”

Born Jung Dong-jin, the actor was a basketball player in middle and high school.

He began his acting journey in 2006, appearing in K-dramas Sharp 3 and Fireworks. He later acted in the romance drama Smile Again (2010 to 2011) and melodrama My Heart Twinkle Twinkle (2015). In addition, he appeared in Welcome To Waikiki 2 (2019), opposite Lee Yi-kyung and Kim Seon-ho.

He dated South Korean actress Park Han-byul from 2014 to 2015.