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The case pitting Kim Soo-hyun against YouTuber Kim Se-ui and Garo Sero Institute continues to take a major judicial turn in South Korea. A few days after the official request for an arrest warrant against Kim Se-ui, the actor's lawyer (Kho Sang Rock) once again spoke out publicly to defend Kim Soo-hyun and react to the police's conclusions regarding accusations of a relationship with the late actress Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor.
Kim Soo-hyun's lawyers speak out
On May 24, lawyer Kho Sang-rock published a lengthy message on social networks to explain why the actor's legal team had chosen not to respond publicly to the many accusations relayed in recent months.
In particular, he said, “Actor Kim Soo-hyun is only a victim of a crime and is not a procedural party engaged on an equal footing with the accused (at this stage, the suspects) in a criminal trial.”
The lawyer goes on to explain, “That's why we haven't responded one by one so far to Kim Se-ui's irrational claims, and we intend to continue to make this our principle.”
According to him, now that the police investigation has confirmed the damage suffered by the actor, he should be able to resume a normal life: “Once the damage has been confirmed after a lengthy investigation, the victim must now return to his original place.”
Ko Sang-rok also stressed the role of the authorities in this case: “Revealing crimes, punishing criminals and protecting victims is the role of the state.”
He adds: “Our society must help victims of crime to return to their everyday lives and their original places as quickly as possible. That's what a healthy society is all about.”
Lawyers reject accusations of “political persecution”
In a new statement published on May 25, Kim Soo-hyun's lawyer also responded to Kim Se-ui's claims that the South Korean authorities had requested his arrest for political reasons.
Kim Se-ui claims that the legal proceedings are aimed at preventing him from covering certain South Korean politicians via his YouTube channel.
But Ko Sang-rok totally refutes this version of events: “The request for an arrest warrant against Kim Se-ui dates from May 14, whereas his broadcasts concerning a specific politician only began on May 18. His argument therefore does not even correspond to the chronological order of the facts.”
The lawyer also adds, “The 32-page arrest warrant made public is not a document spontaneously drafted to prevent political cover.”
In his view, accusations of “political persecution” are simply “absurd assertions that ignore even the basics of criminal procedure.”
Further details on suspected AI audio manipulation
The press release also details the suspicions surrounding the audio recordings publicly released by Kim Se-ui.
As a reminder, the audio files presented as evidence contained a voice attributed to Kim Sae-ron, claiming to have had a relationship with Kim Soo-hyun when she was a schoolgirl. The lawyer claims that several elements now reinforce the suspicions of manipulation or editing.
According to him, a person nicknamed “Cali Park”, who claimed to have been attacked by a hitman sent by Kim Soo-hyun, provided several different versions of the recordings to different people, including Kim Se-ui, YouTuber Lee Jin-ho and the Gold Medalist agency.
Ko Sang-rok explains, “All three files contain the voice of the deceased, but the flow of conversation is different from the first greeting.”
He adds, “The fact that there are several different versions of the same recording strongly suggests that this is not an actual conversation recorded in its entirety.”
The lawyer also claims that this same person allegedly demanded money from Kim Soo-hyun's agency, claiming to possess recordings favorable to the actor, before disappearing.
According to the release, “At this stage, it is difficult to consider these recordings as credible evidence of the deceased's true voice.”
Police consider accusations to be false
This statement comes at a time when the South Korean police now believe that the accusations relayed by Kim Se-ui were "false". misleading.
According to the police report forwarded to the public prosecutor's office, Kim Se-ui spread false information via his YouTube videos and several press conferences organized in 2025, claiming that Kim Soo-hyun had had a relationship with Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor between 2015 and 2018.
The investigators also believe that Kim Se-ui knew the accusations were false but that he nevertheless relayed them with the aim of harming the actor.
One of the most serious elements of the case concerns allegedly manipulated KakaoTalk screenshots. According to the police, Kim Se-ui altered the name of a contact displayed as “Unknown” to include Kim Soo-hyun's name, while adding a profile photo of the actor to make it look like a real conversation with Kim Sae-ron.
The authorities are also accusing Kim Se-ui of broadcasting at a press conference an audio file generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence. In this recording, a voice presented as Kim Sae-ron's claimed, “I've had a relationship with Kim Soo-hyun since middle school, and we had our first sexual encounter during winter break of my sophomore year of high school.”
The police now consider this content to be part of the false information relayed against the actor.
An eagerly awaited hearing on May 26
The Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office has officially requested an arrest warrant for Kim Se-ui on several charges, including defamation, illegal distribution of filmed content, threats and attempted coercion.
A hearing on his possible remand in custody is scheduled for May 26 at the Seoul Central Court. As the case continues to gain momentum in South Korea, several legal experts now believe that pre-trial detention is likely.
Former judge and lawyer Moon Yu-jin said that in her opinion the case went beyond “the limits of the court's patience”.
In her opinion, if the accusations are confirmed, this would be an extremely serious case involving the manipulation of audios by AI, the dissemination of false accusations and massive damage to the reputation of a public figure.
According to the police, the publicly-reported accusations have already caused Kim Soo-hyun significant damage, with cancelled advertising contracts and damages estimated at around 17.4 billion won.
Moon Yu-jin also raised the risk of recidivism, saying that the court could fear “further secondary and tertiary damage” via Kim Se-ui's YouTube broadcasts if he remained at liberty.
