Nam Joo Hyuk’s Agency Refutes New Accusations Of Group Sexual Harassment In An Updated Official Statement

Nam Joo Hyuk has once again been swept up in a second round of accusations. An anonymous informant who claims to be a victim, has accused him of group bullying and sexual harassment in the form of a forced group chat. His agency has since released an official statement about the new updates.

The alleged victim claimed that she had been invited to a group chat and was forced to stay in it as the participants, who were all male, hurled curses and sexually harassing messages at her. Allegedly, Nam Joo Hyuk had also been a participant in the chat. The victim claims that the incident occurred on May 10, 2012, when everyone involved was in their last year of high school.

One of the guys in Nam Joo Hyuk’s clique didn’t like me and for that reason alone, they invited me to a group chat and cursed at me in turn. They lied and said that it was because I had bullied someone. It was a huge shock for me at that time and I felt so wronged that I told the student committee about the matter and I remember that the incident ended with them being assigned to school volunteer work without the matter going on their records. Thanks to this judgement, they were forced to apologize to me in front of the teacher.

— Alleged Victim

Nam Joo Hyuk and his clique in high school. | Sports Khan

It was further claimed that the victim was subjected to curses, sexual harassment, criticism on her looks and grades and more. She claimed that although Nam Joo Hyuk appeared in the group chat only later on, he had allegedly also personally participated in her ridicule. Although he did not start or lead the incident, she claims he was still a participant and an observer. She also claimed that Nam Joo Hyuk and his friends recently had intentions of approaching her again to apologize for the matter.

I was told that Nam Joo Hyuk and his friends wanted to apologize to me. I was taken aback that the perpetrators wanted to apologize 10 years after the incident and rejected it. It didn’t make sense that the perpetrators were doing interviews and I have no intention of accepting an insincere apology. They’re currently committing a second round of harm.

— Alleged Victim

Nam Joo Hyuk and his clique in high school. | Sports Khan

Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency, Management SOOP, stepped up to address the matter. They concluded that although the incident ended with an apology in school as per the victim mentions, no further recent apology was attempted. They also deny that all the alleged accusations are true, claiming that only a partial retelling of the situation was made public.

Hello. This is Management SOOP. This is regarding the article on Nam Joo Hyuk.

Firstly, regarding the second round of anonymous accusations made recently, we have checked the facts with the actor himself and of course through other channels, and we wish to tell you again that we have clearly checked that the accusations made by the second accuser is false.

Next, regarding the KakaoTalk group chat accusations released today and the relevant articles, they have not made public the entire situation and only extracted a partial and one-sided part of the event without any proper explanations about what happened before or after. It is completely untrue that Nam Joo Hyuk tried apologizing to the accuser as they have mentioned.

The truths regarding the KakaoTalk group chat is very complicated and the roles of those involved are very personal. Just as the articles have mentioned, it is a case that has already ended with an apology in school. Following which, we think that it is not appropriate to reveal the entire case through media. We will also be confirming the truths behind this and also dealing with it legally. In addition, we are disappointed at the media outlets who have published one-sided articles without verifying the truth.

We sincerely ask of you. So far, the anonymous accuser’s claims have not been thoroughly fact checked and there is no clear evidence about the circumstances, but it has been exposed to the media and accepted as if they were true. As such, even if our agency and actor says that no such thing has happened, thanks to the malicious information that has been reported as if it was the truth, it is very hard for us to prove his innocence and absence. Even if criminal proceedings later on reveal his innocence, it will not be easy to reverse the current reality and it will cause a huge pain for the actor itself.

For this reason, the agency believes that in order to protect our actor’s honor, we will have no choice but to strongly deal with the first and second rounds of accusers and will be swiftly proceeding with a lawsuit. In the future, we will continue to deal with unconfirmed reckless accusations and the spread of rumors via YouTube, with strong legal actions.

— Management SOOP

Nam Joo Hyuk has recently gained fame and love through his role as Baek Yi Jin in the K-Drama, Twenty Five, Twenty One.