If you have been following the Kim Soo Hyun-Kim Sae Ron saga, there is a big update after over a year.
The Seoul court has approved an arrest warrant for Kim Se Eui, the YouTuber behind the channel HoverLab (also known as Garo Sero Institute). The charge? Spreading false claims that Kim Soo Hyun dated the late actress Kim Sae Ron when she was a minor. He did so with evidence that police say was deliberately manufactured.
The allegations first exploded online in early 2025, shortly after Kim Sae Ron’s tragic death in February that year. A few weeks later, Hover Lab, a YouTube channel with nearly a million subscribers, posted content claiming the two actors had a relationship dating back to her middle school years. Kim Se Eui released KakaoTalk screenshots, private photos, and an audio recording.
The story spread fast. Brands dropped the actor. His dramas faced boycotts. He held a tearful press conference in March 2025, admitting they had dated but insisting she was an adult at the time. “I won’t ask you to trust me,” he said then. “I will prove it.” He also firmly said, “I can’t admit to something I didn’t do.”
Investigators concluded that the KakaoTalk screenshots were edited. Kim Se Eui had received 11 screenshots from a family member of Kim Sae Ron showing conversations with an “unidentified person” from 2016. He then altered seven parts of them, including changing the contact name to “Kim Soo Hyun,” to make it look like the actor was the one chatting with her.
The emotional voice recording Kim Se Eui played at a press conference in May 2025, claiming it was Kim Sae Ron confessing to the relationship. Police say it was AI-generated.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant after prosecutors argued Kim Se Eui might destroy evidence or flee. He is now in custody, facing charges of defamation, spreading false information, and even violations of laws against illegal filming and distribution. Presenting AI-manipulated intimate material falls under that category, too.
Kim Se Eui has denied everything. He called the warrant “forced and unreasonable,” claimed he had warned viewers the chats were “reconstructed,” and even argued the National Forensic Service couldn’t confirm the audio was AI. He also threatened to sue the investigators back, accusing them of abuse of power.
The police didn’t stop at the YouTuber. A lawyer, too
The bereaved family’s legal representative has also been booked as a suspect. Police say the attorney didn’t pass along the materials. Plus, he helped “amplify and reproduce” them in an organized, planned manner. Kim Soo Hyun’s own lawyer noted that the actor never even filed a complaint against this attorney; investigators found the evidence of conspiracy on their own.
In their warrant request, police didn’t mince words about the fallout. Kim Se Eui’s actions, they wrote, “collapsed Kim Soo Hyun’s social base and his economic activities across the board, and destroyed the basis for his professional survival.” The actor is still receiving psychiatric treatment. Any further spread of these lies, police warned, could cause “serious and irreparable harm.”
Kim’s agency, Gold Medalist, released a brief but pointed statement after the arrest: “The truth is being confirmed through due legal process and a thorough investigation.” They thanked the fans who waited.
Even though the police cleared him, Kim Soo Hyun still has a long way to go before the public fully trusts him again.
Tensions with the family of the late Sulli, his co-star in the 2017 film Real, over claims that she was pressured during filming have kept the actor in the hot seat.
Still, a comeback seems likely. As for Disney+’s big-budget series Knock Off, Disney+ has simply said, “There are no changes to reports at this time.”
