The Voice Was Fake. The Chat Logs Were Edited. Now Seoul Police Are Moving to Arrest the Man Who Released Them.
Seoul's Gangnam Police Precinct filed for an arrest warrant on May 14 for Kim Se-ui, head of the YouTube channel Garosero Research Institute (HoverLab), on charges of defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act. Prosecutors submitted the warrant to court Wednesday. The hearing is set for May 26 at 10:30 a.m. at Seoul Central District Court.
The warrant application, cited by JoongAng Ilbo and Korea Times, states that police have determined the core evidence used to allege that actor Kim Soo-hyun dated the late actress Kim Sae-ron during her teenage years was fabricated. The audio file released by Kim Se-ui at a May 2025 press conference - in which a voice purporting to be Kim Sae-ron's described a relationship beginning in middle school - was generated using AI deepfake technology. Separately, the KakaoTalk conversation screenshots presented as evidence had been manually edited in seven distinct places: the name of an unidentified user in a 2016 chat thread was altered to read "Kim Soo-hyun" before publication.
Police allege Kim Se-ui was "fully aware" there was no factual basis for the underage dating claims, and distributed the materials for financial gain, including YouTube advertising revenue. A lawyer representing Kim Sae-ron's bereaved family was also booked as a suspect and identified as a co-conspirator, in what investigators described as a coordinated effort. Kim Soo-hyun's legal team told reporters his side did not file a complaint against the family's attorney; police appear to have independently elevated the individual to suspect status.
The fallout from the 2025 campaign was severe and immediate. Kim Soo-hyun lost multiple advertising contracts; civil damages claims tied to social controversy clauses from those contracts total approximately 17.4 billion Korean won, or about $12.5 million. The actor has been receiving psychiatric treatment.
Kim Soo-hyun, whose 2024 drama Queen of Tears was one of South Korea's highest-rated series of that year, held his own press conference in March 2025 denying the relationship began before Kim Sae-ron turned 18. Kim Sae-ron died by suicide in February 2025. Kim Se-ui raised the allegations the following month.
The National Forensic Service, which conducted a separate audio analysis in late 2025, had concluded at the time that it could not determine whether the file had been altered with AI. The Gangnam Police Precinct's more recent forensic work reached the opposite conclusion.
The warrant hearing on May 26 will determine whether Kim Se-ui is detained pending further proceedings.
