Nam Joo Hyuk’s Agency Responds To 3rd Accuser’s New Alleged Evidence Of School Bullying And Sexual Harassment In Group Chat
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Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency has released a new statement following a third round of school violence allegations against the actor, this time with alleged evidence of bullying and sexual harassment.
Last month, a person claiming to have been bullied by Nam Joo Hyuk during their school days (hereafter referred to as “the first accuser”) gave an interview to a news outlet about their alleged experience. Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency Management SOOP firmly denied the allegations, and several days later, they announced that they had taken legal action against the reporter, the first accuser, and the publication in which the interview was first published.
The following week, a second individual (hereafter referred to as “the second accuser”) came forward claiming to have been a victim of school violence at the hands of the actor and his friends during high school, stating that they had decided to speak up after seeing that Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency had sued the first accuser and denied their claims. Management SOOP denied this second round of allegations as well.
On July 6, another news outlet reported that they had obtained evidence from a third accuser—this time a woman—that Nam Joo Hyuk and his friends had bullied and sexually harassed her during their senior year of high school.
The third accuser provided text messages from a KakaoTalk group chat from May 10, 2012, claiming that she had been forcefully invited into the group chat against her will and bullied simply because one of Nam Joo Hyuk’s friends disliked her. In a form of cyberbullying known as “KakaoTalk prison” in Korea, Nam Joo Hyuk and his friends reportedly took turns sending her hateful messages that included sexual harassment, comments disparaging her looks, and sexual insults.
The news outlet stated that through Nam Joo Hyuk did not create the group chat, the text messages showed that he personally insulted the third accuser and participated in the conversation.
The third accuser revealed that she reported the incident to the school at the time, and the perpetrators’ punishment was mandated community service within the school. She also stated that, at the time, the perpetrators only apologized when forced to do so by their teacher. However, according to the third accuser, the perpetrators recently attempted to apologize to her 10 years after the incident, when she wanted to come forward with her story.
Later that evening, Management SOOP released an official statement addressing both the new report and the previous allegations by the first two accusers.
While Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency confirmed that the text messages provided by the third accuser were real, they alleged that the messages were merely an out-of-context fragment of a bigger picture. The agency also confirmed that, as the third accuser had claimed, the incident had been wrapped up with an apology at school. However, they denied that Nam Joo Hyuk had recently attempted to apologize to her.
Explaining their decision not to provide further explanations or context for the text messages, Management SOOP stated, “The things that took place in the KakaoTalk group chat are very complicated and an extremely personal matter for the individuals in the chat. As mentioned in the article itself, it is also an incident that was wrapped up with an apology at school. Therefore, we don’t believe it is right to reveal the full story through the media at present.”
Management SOOP also reiterated their position that the second anonymous report made by the second accuser last month was untrue, announcing once again that they would be taking legal action against both the first and second accusers.
The agency’s full statement is as follows:
We are making a statement regarding the article about Nam Joo Hyuk.
First, in regards to the content of the recent second anonymous report, we checked the truth from various angles through a number of channels, including, of course, the actor himself. We reiterate that we clearly confirmed that the claims made by the second accuser are not true.
Next, today’s article about the messages sent in the KakaoTalk group chat did not reveal the whole story of the situation at the time, and it only provided an excerpt of one fragment of the scene, without any context or explanation of what took place before and after [those messages]. Additionally, it is completely untrue that the actor attempted to apologize to the informant.
The things that took place in the KakaoTalk group chat are very complicated and an extremely personal matter for the individuals in the chat. As mentioned in the article itself, it is also an incident that was wrapped up with an apology at school. Therefore, we don’t believe it is right to reveal the full story through the media at present. The truth of this aspect will also be clearly confirmed during the legal process. Furthermore, we express our deep regret towards the news outlet that unilaterally published the report without checking with us about the truth.
We entreat you. Even though the claims of the accusers hiding behind anonymity have not been carefully fact-checked, and though there is no clear proof, those claims are being revealed in the media as if they are true, and people are currently taking them to be true. No matter how much our agency and the actor counter by stating that they are not true, because this malicious content has already been reported as if it is true, it is very difficult to disprove the claims and prove that he is innocent. Even if his innocence is later revealed through criminal proceedings, it will be impossible to undo this current reality, and that itself clearly means an incredibly great deal of suffering for the actor.
For this reason, our agency has determined that we have no choice but to respond strongly to both the first accuser and the second accuser in order to protect our actor’s reputation, and we plan to speedily file lawsuits against them. We are also letting you know that we plan to take strong and decisive legal action against YouTubers or news outlets that spread unconfirmed and groundless claims or rumors.
Thank you.
Source: Soompi
