Police Investigations Reveal That Apink’s Chorong Was Falsely Accused Of Bullying

Previously, Apink‘s Chorong was accused of participating in school bullying during her school days. She strongly denied the matter of bullying and school violence, and it was further reported in the news that Chorong would be preparing to sue the accuser for spreading falsehood.

Her company, IST Entertainment, revealed that the childhood friend had a disagreement with Chorong in their youth. They recently contacted Chorong and threatened to expose her to the media unless she retired from the entertainment industry. The company responded with legal action after Kim rejected to meet Chorong and continued their threats.

As of November 22 2021, the investigations surrounding the matter of school bullying concluded and the friend was charged for spread of falsehoods instead. The investigations had concluded that school bullying did not take place. However, regarding the claim from the accuser that Chorong had used violence on her, the investigations are still ongoing despite the 7 month delay.

The full translations of the statement can be read below.

[Notice on the results of police investigations regarding Apink Park Chorong’s lawsuit]

Hello, this is IST Entertainment.

We will be notifying the many that have been waiting, regarding the results of Apink Park Chorong’s police investigation’s results through this official statement by her legal representative.

Hello. This is Apink Chorong’s legal representative firm, Taerim. We will be announcing the results of the police investigation surrounding Park Chorong’s (hereby referred to as our client) lawsuit. As per the investigation results, the accuser has been acknowledged to have spread falsehoods and threatened our client and it has been decided by police opinion that they will be facing charges. 

The accuser tried to coerce our client into retiring from the entertainment industry and had also mass-sent emails to various industry representatives and journalists, by which the contents included falsehoods about our client’s private life. This took place at a time where the industry was swept up with accusations for school bullying. 

Although our client had tried to get her to refrain herself and we have evidence of this, the accuser did not stop and so our client filed a lawsuit against the accuser on April 1, 2021. Over the course of 7 months, the police investigated not only the accuser and our client, but also acquaintances who were witnesses on site at that point of time and they confirmed the truth from people that knew both the accuser and our client back then. Through various investigations, the police strived to find the black and white truth. 

The result of that was that the police found that the accuser had maliciously edited the voice recording, revealed photographs that were unrelated to the matter, riding on the societal wave of the issue of school bullying at that point of time. It was judged that the accuser tried to threaten our client with falsehoods and the accuser has since been charged for the matter.

Regarding the matter where the accuser accused our client of using violence on her, although the matter was investigated with the testimonies of various acquaintances, taking into the consideration clashing testimonies, it was judged that it is hard to determine if the matter happened. 

Regarding this matter, until the investigations completely conclude, our firm will do our best to until the truth comes to light. We hope that the results of this investigation will ease both our client’s and her fans’ hearts even a little bit as they have suffered emotionally to a severe degree through the lies, exaggerations, speculative articles and criticisms due to unverified falsehoods. In the future, until the investigation concludes, to prevent slander, we ask that you refrain from lies, exaggerations, speculative articles and criticisms made on the basis of unverified falsehoods.

In addition, we plan on taking strict legal action against the various posts on online communities, social media etc that contain one-sided claims that are different from the truth. 

Thank you.

— Park Chorong’s legal team