Actor Lee Jang-woo, embroiled in controversy over unpaid food ingredient bills, has offered an explanation. Lee Jang-woo publicly released a statement of payments showing full payment for the food ingredients, strongly asserting his lack of involvement in the controversy.
On the 17th, Lee Jang-woo's agency HUNUS Entertainment issued an official statement explaining the outstanding payment controversy concerning the sundae soup restaurant "Hoseokchon" operated by Lee Jang-woo.
Earlier, Dispatch reported that the sundae soup restaurant operated by Lee Jang-woo had not paid 40 million won for pork byproducts for eight months. According to the report, a person surnamed A who runs a livestock distribution company in Cheonan claimed that from Nov. 2023 to May 2025—about a year and six months—he supplied pork heads, intestines and other byproducts to the sundae soup restaurant run by Lee Jang-woo, but that unpaid balances gradually began to accumulate.
The person surnamed A said he repeatedly sent demand texts to Hoseokchon, but the unpaid balance continued to grow, swelling to 64 million won in January last year. Eventually the person surnamed A said he directly sent a direct message to Lee Jang-woo in January this year but received no reply, and that about 40 million won or more remains unpaid.
In response, the F&B company that operates "Hoseokchon" and lists Lee Jang-woo as a director reportedly told Dispatch, "I thought Lee Jang-woo was a co-CEO, but that's not true," and said, "He only participated briefly at opening to help a friend. After that, he was not involved at all." However, criticism poured in because Lee Jang-woo had promoted the restaurant as his own on broadcasts as recently as last year.
Lee Jang-woo's side said in an official statement, "Actor Lee Jang-woo is a shareholder in and participates in the operation of Hoseokchon. Hoseokchon has already paid the full supply amount to its contractual vendor, Mujin Co., and the problem arose after Mujin failed to pay company A. There is no direct contractual relationship between company A and Hoseokchon or actor Lee Jang-woo, and reports suggesting that actor Lee Jang-woo did not pay are not true," they explained.
Ultimately, Lee Jang-woo delivered all payments to the vendor Mujin Co., and the reason company A did not receive payment is Mujin Co.'s fault, not a problem of Lee Jang-woo or "Hoseokchon." Company A's contract was also with the vendor Mujin Co., not with Lee Jang-woo or "Hoseokchon."
Lee Jang-woo's side emphasized that "reports saying 'Mujin was the owner of Hoseokchon' mentioned in some coverage are also not true, and Mujin has never held equity in Hoseokchon. Actor Lee Jang-woo has no connection with Mujin; it was simply a vendor."
They added, "Regarding the part about the supplier attempting to contact via social media, actor Lee Jang-woo's account receives dozens of messages a day, and messages from accounts he does not follow are sorted into a separate 'message requests' folder, making immediate confirmation difficult. While it is true that those messages were not checked in a timely manner, we make it clear that they were not intentionally avoided or ignored."
In particular, Lee Jang-woo's side disclosed all records of payments made to the vendor Mujin Co. to prove their innocence. The statement of transfers listed detailed amounts from Jan. 2024 through last September. According to it, "Hoseokchon" sent payments without fail each month, and the total was confirmed to amount to 445.3 million won.
They added, "We feel moral responsibility for not sufficiently monitoring whether the intermediary fulfilled its obligations within this transaction structure," and said, "We regret the misunderstandings caused by inaccurate information and will do everything necessary to cooperate so that the matter can be resolved smoothly."
[photo] OSEN DB, Tzuyang YouTube, HUNUS Entertainment
[OSEN]