KBS responds to calls for Park Hye-soo's removal from 'Dear. M'

“Dear. M” postponed its broadcast schedule, originally scheduled for Feb. 26. Courtesy of KBS

By Lee Gyu-lee

State-run broadcaster KBS has responded to a recent online petition calling for actress Park Hye-soo to be removed from the cast of “Dear. M” following her bullying scandal.

The petition, which was started on March 4, attracted over 4,200 signatures in less than two weeks.

“The following (bullying) issue is still in dispute and is still under police investigation,” the broadcaster's chief producer, Cho Hyun-ah, wrote on KBS' petition website Tuesday. “So KBS has postponed the airing of the series, and has decided to objectively monitor the process.”

Adding that it may even reshoot the series with a new cast, the producer said the broadcaster will take all measures accordingly for a fair outcome of the investigation.

KBS' statement came about 16 days after it decided on Feb. 24 to postpone “Dear. M,” just two days before it was supposed to go on air.

The broadcaster announced earlier this week that it has decided to pick up a different TV series called “Imitation” to fill the time slot originally designated for “Dear. M.” This has made prospects uncertain for the broadcast of the series, even though filming was completed.

The bullying scandal against Park continues, with the alleged victims still claiming that they were abused by the actress in middle school and high school.

Actress Park Hye-soo / Courtesy of Studio Santaclaus Entertainment

The allegations were first raised last month when an online user accused Park of extorting money from her schoolmates. “She probably won't even remember, because she took money from too many people,” the user wrote.

Following the allegations, a string of accusations surfaced claiming additional accounts of her abuse. The accusers formed a “victims' group” against the actress and have been calling for her apology.

Park's agency, Studio Santaclaus Entertainment, was quick to deny all of the accusations, vowing to take legal action against the accusers for “spreading false rumors.”

Park herself also denied the allegations on social media on March. 7, saying she was a victim of school bullying, not the perpetrator.

She wrote that she was ostracized by her schoolmates when she moved to a different neighborhood in eighth grade.

“Because I was a year older than my schoolmates and because I studied in the U.S., malicious rumors about me started spreading,” she said. “My phone number was shared with countless people, so I received obscene messages and sexually harassing comments every morning.”

Adding that the bullying got worse as time passed, she said it was an “unbearably devastating time.”

However, shortly after her claim, one of the accusers refuted her, saying Park and her agency have been threatening her to retract the accusations.

“She even called one of us crying asking to offer false testimony in her favor,” the accuser wrote on social media. “(Park and her agency) searched through my Facebook profile and shared unrelated pictures to question my credibility and make the victims look like liars.”

Park rose to stardom by competing in the popular audition show "K-pop Star 4" in 2014. She began acting with a supporting role in the 2015 TV series "Yong Pal" and has taken lead roles in various other series and movies, including the 2018 musical "Swing Kids."