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A major turning point in the case that has been shaking the South Korean entertainment industry for several months. On May 26, 2026, the South Korean justice system officially validated the arrest warrant for Kim Se-ui, the representative of the YouTube channel Garosero Research Institute (GaroSero), accused of spreading false information about actor Kim Soo-hyun and the late actress Kim Sae-ron.
Kim Se-ui taken into custody: court validates arrest warrant
Judge Boo Dong-sik, in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, ruled that there was a “risk of destroying evidence and absconding”, thus justifying his detention.
The hearing to validate the arrest warrant began at 10:30 a.m. and lasted around four hours, excluding breaks, at Seoul Central Court.
At the end of this pre-detention interrogation, Judge Boo Dong-sik finally validated the warrant at around 10.10pm, deeming that there was a “risk of destroying evidence and absconding”.
Kim Se-ui is being sued for defamation via news networks as well as for violation of the Sex Crimes Act, following months of controversy surrounding the actor and the late actress Kim Sae-ron. The announcement came at around 11.15pm in South Korea, after a full day of live coverage by the Korean media.
According to several Korean media outlets, the public prosecutor's office insisted that Kim Se-ui and his entourage had already manipulated data in this case, reinforcing fears of further evidence destruction.
A tense day in court
Since the morning of May 26, all media attention has been focused on Kim Se-ui's hearing before the Korean courts.
On his arrival in court, the YouTubeur held a very offensive press conference in front of reporters, rejecting all the accusations against him outright. In particular, he declared, “The arrest warrant is full of obvious misinformation.” Before adding, “I recognize absolutely none of the accusations.”
Kim Se-ui also directly attacked the investigators and the public prosecutor's office, claiming that the investigation was politically motivated.
The Garo Sero Institute representative also referred to accusations of audio manipulation by artificial intelligence. According to him, South Korea's National Forensic Service would not have been able to state with certainty that the broadcast recordings had been generated by AI.
He said, “The national institute did not conclude that the recordings were generated by artificial intelligence, while the private company hired by Kim Soo-hyun claims otherwise. Are they questioning the findings of the national service?”
Kim Se-ui also announced his intention to lodge a complaint on May 27 against the police and prosecutors involved in the case, accusing them of distorting the judicial process. 2 journalists, one from MBC and one from SBS, were virulent in their questions and tried to confront Kim Se-ui, notably concerning the verification that the audio was AI, which he had difficulty answering.
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Police accuse Kim Se-ui of tampering with evidence
But despite his public defense, the South Korean police's conclusions seem particularly heavy-handed.
According to the investigators, several items publicly broadcast by Kim Se-ui were deliberately manipulated in order to accuse Kim Soo-hyun. One of the most serious points concerns KakaoTalk screenshots shown publicly in recent months.
According to the police, Kim Se-ui received a screenshot from Kim Sae-ron's family in June 2016, where the contact initially appeared under the name “Unknown”. Investigators later believe that this contact was altered to show Kim Soo-hyun's name, with the addition of a profile photo of the actor to make it appear as if there was a real conversation between the two celebrities.
The police claim that 7 different elements of this conversation have been altered.
Kim Sae-ron's audios suspected of being generated by AI
Another key element in the case is the famous audio files attributed to Kim Sae-ron.
In these publicly broadcast recordings, a voice presented as that of the actress claimed, among other things, “I've had a relationship with Kim Soo-hyun since middle school.” Another passage even mentioned a first sexual relationship during the winter vacations of her second year of college.
However, according to the South Korean police, these recordings now present “strong suspicions of falsification or manipulation”. Investigators believe that Kim Se-ui released the content to the public without sufficient verification or cross-checking procedures, despite the many doubts surrounding their authenticity.
Authorities also suspect the use of artificial intelligence to modify or generate certain audio files.
According to the official request for an arrest warrant sent to the public prosecutor's office by Gangnam police station, Kim Se-ui is said to have spread the accusations “intentionally, even though he was fully aware of the facts”.
The document states in part: “The suspect knew full well that Kim Soo-hyun had not had a relationship with the deceased when she was a minor and that the cause of her death was not attributable to Kim Soo-hyun, but he nevertheless spread this false information with the aim of defaming him.”
This formulation is particularly weighty, as it means that the investigators now consider that the accusations relayed publicly were not simply erroneous, but deliberately misleading.
A look back at the events of the last few days
These revelations come after several days of escalating legal proceedings.
On May 24, Kim Soo-hyun's lawyer, Ko Sang-rock, issued a lengthy statement claiming that the actor was “only a victim of a crime”. The actor's legal team explained that it no longer wished to respond individually to the accusations that Kim Se-ui had been relaying for months.
The following day, Kim Soo-hyun's lawyers also rejected the YouTuber's accusations of “political persecution”. According to Kim Se-ui, the request for an arrest warrant was linked to his recent political broadcasts. A version immediately rejected by the actor's lawyer, who pointed out that the judicial request dated back to May 14, i.e. before these political videos.
An affair that has become a huge media scandal in Korea
Since the beginning of 2025, this case has become one of the biggest media scandals affecting the South Korean entertainment industry.
Kim Se-ui and Garo Sero Institute accused Kim Soo-hyun of having had a relationship with Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor between 2015 and 2018. The YouTuber also claimed that financial pressure from the actor's agency contributed to Kim Sae-ron's death in February 2025.
Kim Soo-hyun has always denied all the accusations.
After several months of investigation, the South Korean police now consider that several elements presented publicly against the actor were false, manipulated or insufficiently verified. The case is now entering a major new judicial phase with the official arrest of Kim Se-ui. Related cases, notably the trademark lawsuits against Kim Soo-hyun, should also be able to be unblocked with the results of the police investigation.
Kim Se-ui's arrest now marks a major turning point in this high-profile case in South Korea. Mr. Kim's arrest should speed up the investigation. The court's decision to issue an arrest warrant is interpreted as proof that there is sufficient evidence to justify the suspicion of a crime.
