▲ Kim Se-ui, head of the YouTube channel HoverLab, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul's Seocho Ward on May 26, 2026, to attend a pretrial detention hearing. Kim is accused of spreading false claims, including allegations that the late actress Kim Sae-ron's death was caused by debt repayment pressure from actor Kim Soo-hyun. (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- Police on Thursday referred Kim Se-ui, head of the YouTube channel HoverLab, to prosecutors while in custody on charges of spreading false information about actor Kim Soo-hyun.

 

The move came three weeks after the Seoul Gangnam Police Station sought an arrest warrant for Kim on May 14, applying multiple charges, including violations of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, defamation, intimidation and attempted coercion.

 

Police have been investigating Kim for more than a year since Kim Soo-hyun's side filed a complaint in May last year.

 

Kim is accused of disseminating claims through YouTube and other channels that Kim Soo-hyun had dated the late actress Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor and that pressure from the actor's side to repay debts contributed to her death.

 

He is also accused of defaming the actor by allegedly using artificial intelligence to manipulate Kim Sae-ron's voice and fabricate statements claiming she first had sexual relations with Kim Soo-hyun during the winter break of her second year of middle school.

 

Police said they concluded that Kim knowingly spread false information in an attempt to attract public attention.

 

Kim began broadcasting content on the issue through YouTube in February last year and, together with Kim Sae-ron's bereaved family, held a press conference in March to make the allegations.

 

After completing a court review of his detention at the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday, Kim met with reporters and denied the charges while calling for his release.

 

"Once I was detained and unable to respond actively, certain forces appeared to seize the opportunity to spread serious false information and defamatory claims against me and the bereaved family of actress Kim Sae-ron," he said.

 

He added that the situation could develop in a way that makes it appear as though both he and the bereaved family had been lying, maintaining that his allegations against Kim Soo-hyun were not false.

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