Nam Joo Hyuk experiences 'great pain' as agency takes legal action vs bullying rumors

MANILA, Philippines — "Twenty Five Twenty One" lead star Nam Joo-hyuk is the latest among K-drama stars accused of bullying while in school.

His agency released a statement recently, denying the allegations. The agency has taken legal actions against the reporter, accuser and even "malicious posts and comments" online. 

"First, we ask for your understanding in the delay in announcing our position in order to confirm the facts. After checking the truth with the actor regarding the initial report, we have confirmed that all the relevant information is not true in the slightest. We also express our regret at the one-sided report from the media that did not check the truth even once with the agency or the actor before publishing the article," the statement from Management SOOP read. 

The actor's management will request Korea's Press Arbitration Commission to let the publication publish a correction report. Criminal charges will be filed against the reporter and the anonymous source. 

"After this time, the agency will take severe legal action against publishing one-sided claims without checking the truth online (via social media and YouTube). We will also respond strongly through punishment without leniency against malicious over-analyzations and interpretations, actions that encourage this, and malicious posts and comments that go beyond mere expression of opinions," it added. 

Korea JoongAng Daily published a report that said an anonymous source tipped off Korean publication The Days that the actor was allegedly part of a group that bullied for six years during middle and high school.

“Nam was part of a group of school bullies, and they would go around bullying numerous students. They would hurl curse words at students and hit them every day, not to mention pushing the students to cut in line during lunchtime. They would frequently force other students to bring them snacks from the store and throw mechanical pencil lead from behind," the accuser claimed. 

The anonymous accuser said that memories of those days came back after seeing the actor playing "a pure-hearted protagonist" on shows. It added that "former schoolmates who were bullied even more severely than I was refrain from watching television and are receiving psychiatric treatment."

Management SOOP said that the bullying scandal affected the actor and his family. 

"The actor and his family are the ones who experienced the greatest pain due to the vague gossip and rumors that are thoughtless and not confirmed in the slightest. No matter how the agency or actor reveal an official statement denying the reckless articles that take on an attitude of 'whatever if it is false' and do not even check the truth and only rely on groundless rumors online, the current state leads to [the actor] being branded with a scarlet letter, which the agency really cannot help but feel distressed and regrettable about," the statement said. 

Nam's breakout role is the 2015 drama "Who Are You: School 2015." He then proceeded to do big projects including "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo" (2016), "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (2016), "Start Up" (2020), and "Twenty Five Twenty One" (2022).