In the last few weeks, Nam Joo-hyuk and his agency have been tackling allegations of school bullying. A few weeks ago, a person had accused the Twenty-Five Twenty-One star of bullying and his agency had immediately shot the claims down. They also proceeded to take legal actions against the accuser and the publication that published the claims. Soon after, a second person came forward and accused the actor yet again. Now, a third person has accused the actor of not only school bullying but also bullying and sexual harassment and allegedly has proof of it.
On Wednesday, as reported by Soompi, a South Korean news outlet reported that a third accuser, identified as a woman, has provided alleged evidence to the publication claiming that Nam Joo-hyuk and his friends bullied and sexually harassed her in high school. She allegedly presented text messages from from a KakaoTalk group chat dated back to 2011 and claimed that she was forcefully invited to the chat and was bullied by the group because Nam Joo-hyuk’s friends disliked her. They also alleged took turns to send hateful messages, which included sexual harassment, insults and comments on her looks.
The publication had added that the Start-Up actor did not form the alleged group but was a part of it and allegedly participated in the chat as well. The alleged incident was reported to the school management and as a form of punishment, the perpetrators were mandated to perform community service within the school. It was also claimed that the perpetrators apologized when forced by their teacher. The third accuser added that the perpetrators approached her after 10 years and apologized.
Reacting to the claims, Nam Joo-hyuk’s agency Management SOOP released a strong statement. While they confirmed that the messages from the group chat are not fake, they added that there is more to the situation than what has been revealed. They added that it is not true that Nam Joo-hyuk attempted to apologize to the accuser 10 years after the incident.
“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 agency said.
They also reaffirmed that the accusations made by the second accuser are untrue. “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,” the statement added.
