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Nam Joo Hyuk accused of school bullying and sexual harassment by third individual; Actor’s agency responds
The ‘Twenty-Five, Twenty-One’ star’s agency has released a statement addressing allegations put forward by a third accuser. Read on for more.
CONTENT WARNING: The following article mentions violence, PTSD, bullying, sexual harassment, etc. Reader’s discretion is advised.
A third individual has come forward to accuse actor Nam Joo Hyuk of school violence, this time releasing alleged evidence of bullying and sexual harassment. On June 20, the actor was first accused of school bullying by an anonymous informant who tipped off a publication, but the allegations were firmly denied by Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency, Management SOOP. The agency went on to file criminal complaints against the accuser, the reporter who wrote the article, and the CEO of the publication who released the article.
Following this, on June 28, a second individual came forward, claiming to have been a victim of school violence at the hands of the actor and his friends. Once again, Management SOOP denied the allegations, calling them “groundless”. Earlier this week, in an exposé carried out by South Korean media outlet Dispatch, 20 of Nam Joo Hyuk’s former classmates and teachers came forward to further deny the bullying accusations, and stand by the actor with detailed statements.
On July 6, a news outlet published a report stating that they had obtained evidence from a third accuser. This time, the accuser alleged that Nam Joo Hyuk and his friends had bullied and sexually harassed her during their senior year in high school.
Providing text messages from a KakaoTalk group chat dated May 10, 2012, the accuser claimed that she had been invited into the group chat against her will, and had been bullied because one of the actor’s friends disliked her. Reportedly, the actor and his friends have been accused of taking turns to send hateful messages to the accuser, which included sexual harassment, sexual insults, and negative comments about her looks, in a form of cyberbullying known as ‘KakaoTalk prison’ in South Korea.
The report stated that although the actor did not create the group chat, going by the text messages, he did personally insult the third accuser and took part in the conversation. The third accuser further revealed that upon reporting the incident to the school at the time, the punishment received by the perpetrators was mandated community service within the school. Further, the perpetrators allegedly only apologised upon being forced to do so by their teacher. The third accuser also alleged that the perpetrators recently tried apologising to her, 10 years after the incident, when she wanted to come forward about the same.
On the evening of the same day, July 6, Nam Joo Hyuk’s agency came forward to assert that although the text messages were real, they alleged that the messages were in fact a fragment of a bigger picture, taken out of context. Management SOOP confirmed that the incident had been wrapped up at school, but denied that Nam Joo Hyuk had recently attempted to apologise to the third accuser.
Further, Management SOOP reiterated that reports by the second accuser were untrue, and announced legal action. They stated, “...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 rumours.”
DISCLAIMER: If you know someone who is having suicidal thoughts, anxiety, going through depression or is suffering from a serious mental illness, reach out to a nearby doctor, mental health expert, or an NGO for immediate help.
