Can actor Kim Soo-hyun break through the dispute with the family of the late Kim Sae-ron? The lawyer has actively denied allegations surrounding the deceased's and Kim Soo-hyun's past private lives, drawing renewed attention.
On the 4th, Go Sang-rok of the law firm Phil, who serves as Kim Soo-hyun's legal representative, once again denied allegations that Kim Sae-ron dated Kim Soo-hyun when she was a minor. In particular, he has actively rebutted and attracted daily attention by stressing that many of the deceased's mobile messenger messages, which were the strongest evidence prompting the allegations, are "false."
Go Sang-rok posted his third statement regarding Kim Soo-hyun's private life controversy on his personal YouTube channel, "Advance of Lawyer Go," and made these claims. In the statement, he insisted that the photos alleged to have been taken when Kim Sae-ron was a minor and with Kim Soo-hyun were actually taken after she had already become an adult. He said that Kim Soo-hyun's tablet PC contained other photos taken around the same time, and as a result the problematic photos were identified as having been taken between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23, 2020.
He also argued that the statement claiming Kim Sae-ron had prewritten a message in a mobile messenger with an acquaintance while alive was "false." Kim Soo-hyun's lawyer emphasized a message in which Kim Sae-ron actually wrote to a reporter while alive, saying, "It's settled that you won't publish the article, right? I'm anxious," adding, "It appears there was never any intention to release a draft statement externally."
Additionally, despite a 12-year age difference between Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Sae-ron, the draft statement contained an error saying, "My age was 16, the other person was 30." Regarding this and related matters, Kim Soo-hyun's side argued, "It was likely a prepared propaganda planned to create an image that a man in his 30s psychologically dominated and sexually exploited a child (under 16) who is considered under current laws and social norms to lack sexual self-determination."
Debate over Go Sang-rok's claims and Kim Soo-hyun's actions continues. Alongside ongoing public criticism, there are those who say they will watch until the trial concludes, while others have expressed sympathy over what they view as an unfair public conviction.
In fact, last year Kim Soo-hyun denied dating rumors that surfaced while Kim Sae-ron was alive, calling them "baseless." However, after the deceased's passing he reversed that and said they had been lovers in the past but had already broken up years before the dating rumors, drawing criticism that he had portrayed Kim Sae-ron as a liar while she was alive.
At the same time, when evidence emerged showing that various allegations about Kim Sae-ron's relationships as a minor, which were reported to the family via Gaseyeon, were inconsistent with facts, some argued it had been an excessive public trial. As a result, Kim Soo-hyun's Disney+ original series Knock-Off, which he had nearly finished filming, was indefinitely postponed, putting him in a situation akin to suspending activities.
The family of Kim Sae-ron has claimed that after the deceased died on Feb. 16, Kim Soo-hyun dated Kim Sae-ron from her middle school years for six years. Kim Soo-hyun's side has rebutted, saying they dated from the summer of 2019, when Kim Sae-ron was an adult, until the following spring. Kim Soo-hyun has criminally sued the family and Gaseyeon for defamation and filed a damages suit seeking 12 billion won. Attention is once again focused on the outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Sae-ron's family.
[Photo] OSEN DB, YouTube source.
[OSEN]