Police clear Kim Soo-hyun of child welfare law violations over underage dating claims
Actor Kim Soo-hyun / Courtesy of tvN
Police have cleared actor Kim Soo-hyun of allegations that he violated Korea's Child Welfare Act in connection with claims that he dated the late actress Kim Sae-ron while she was a minor.
Seoul's Seongdong Police Station said Tuesday that it had decided not to refer Kim to prosecutors on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act and filing a false accusation.
A police official said there was no legal evidence to support allegations of child abuse, adding that an audio recording submitted as evidence could not be accepted because it appeared to have been edited or manipulated. "The case was closed due to insufficient evidence," the official said.
The family of Kim Sae-ron filed a criminal complaint against Kim in May last year, alleging that he had been in a relationship with her since she was a minor, in violation of the Child Welfare Act.
At a press conference, the bereaved family released what they said was an audio recording of Kim Sae-ron speaking with an acquaintance before her death. In the recording, she allegedly said that she had dated Kim "from middle school until entering college, and then we broke up."
Kim's agency rejected the recording as fabricated using artificial intelligence (AI).
While Kim acknowledged that he had been in a relationship with the late actress, he has consistently denied dating her when she was underage. He later filed criminal complaints against Kim Sae-ron's family and the operator of the YouTube channel Garo Sero Research Institute, accusing them of defamation and spreading false information.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.