Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
Actor Nam Joo-hyuk denies school bullying allegations, warns of legal action
Actor Nam Joo-hyuk in a scene from tvN drama “Twenty-Five, Twenty-One” / Courtesy of tvN
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Actor Nam Joo-hyuk has denied allegations of school bullying from a third accuser, adding to denials last month after two other men made similar allegations.
In a report published by the Sports Kyunghyang on Wednesday, a woman who wished to remain anonymous, told the news outlet that the actor was part of a group of school bullies, who invited her to group chat and disparaged her using sexual slurs and hateful comments. This incident happened in May 2012 when they were high school seniors, and the bullies apologized to her after facing pressure from teachers, she said.
Nam's agency, Management Soop, immediately denied the allegation made against the actor, warning that it will file a libel suit against the accusers.
“The things that happened in the group chat are very complicated and private matters. As mentioned in the article, the matter was closed with an apology at school. Therefore, we don't believe it is right to expose the full story through the media,” the company said in a statement.
“It's regrettable that unnamed accusers are keeping themselves hidden behind anonymous allegations and the media is reporting without fact-checking. No matter how much we counter such false rumors, it is hard to disprove the claims and prove that he is innocent because they are already believe them to be true,” it continued.
The agency added that it will take legal actions against online posts ― be they on social media or YouTube ― that spread such allegations about its artist.
“We will also file a lawsuit against anonymous accusers as well as comments or posts that maliciously spread such unconfirmed claims about our artist,” it said.
The allegations against Nam surfaced on June 20 when the first anonymous accuser tipped off local media outlet “The Days” that Nam was allegedly part of a group that bullied him for six years during middle and high school.
The group members allegedly forced other students to buy snacks for them and borrowed his phone to play paid mobile games, according to him. A week later, the second accuser came forward with a similar accusation.
However, the actor's agency denied such allegations, saying, “The actor and his family are the ones who experience the greatest pain due to groundless rumors.”
Nam debuted in 2013 as a fashion model and starred in popular dramas including tvN's “Cheese in The Trap” (2016), MBC's “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Ju” (2016-17) and tvN's “Start-Up” (2020). Most recently, he starred in hit tvN drama “Twenty-Five, Twenty-One” with Kim Tae-ri.