The family of the late Kim Sae Ron has expressed disappointment with the statement from Kim Soo Hyun‘s side and has decided to proceed with a digital forensic analysis of photos that could prove Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun were in a relationship when she was a minor.
According to Korea Economic Daily on March 18th, the family stated, “All we wanted was an apology, but this is disappointing,” and announced their plan to release additional photos of the two. They also released a video through the YouTube channel Garosero Research Institute, HoverLab Inc., on March 18th, purportedly showing the two during their time as a couple.
The video released by Garosero Research Institute appears to have been filmed at Kim Sae Ron’s home. In the footage, Kim Sae Ron is seen wearing only a t-shirt without pants, watching TV alongside a man presumed to be Kim Soo Hyun. Kim Sae Ron asks the man, who is filming and assumed to be Kim Soo Hyun, “Are you going to keep filming me?” The man naturally places his hand on her back, pressing lightly, and says, “Yeah, aren’t you putting too much tension into it?” while continuing to rub her back.
Regarding this video, Garosero Research Institute commented, “The family initially thought Kim Soo Hyun might have been patting her back because she had hiccups, but it seems the viewers were right. It looks more like a situation where she’s wearing a low-frequency therapy device, and Kim Soo Hyun is touching her back.” They added, “This is a video approved by the family,” and claimed, “We ask for a statement by tomorrow. If he says it’s not him in the video, we’ll respond accordingly with more prepared footage that even shows his face.”
On the same day, Kim Soo Hyun’s agency, Gold Medalist, issued an official statement saying, “The family and the YouTube channel Garosero Research Institute have continuously made claims through press conferences and reports that are contrary to the facts.” The agency added, “We visited the late Kim Sae Ron’s funeral, and the person in the photo uploaded to Kim Sae Ron’s fan SNS account is not Kim Soo Hyun but someone else.”
The photo in question, made public on June 23, 2017, shows Kim Sae Ron with a man. According to Garosero Research Institute, the family claims, “Kim Soo Hyun frequently visited this apartment and secretly met with Kim Sae Ron when the family was away.” They further noted about the timing of the photo, “It was uploaded on June 23rd, 2017, and since they’re wearing winter clothes, it was taken earlier—meaning Kim Sae Ron was under 16 years old at the time.” In connection to this, Garosero Research Institute pointed out that a jacket worn by Kim Soo Hyun in a photo released by the family matches one worn by a man in a 2017 fan-posted photo released on March 14th.
However, Gold Medalist refuted this, stating that both this photo and an earlier image released via Garosero Research Institute—showing a man washing dishes inside Kim Sae Ron’s home—were not of Kim Soo Hyun. They stated, “Kim Soo Hyun has never been to Kim Sae Ron’s house, not even once,” and added, “We urge an end to attempts to tarnish Kim Soo-hyun’s reputation using photos and online posts unrelated to the matter.”
It appears that Kim Sae Ron’s family decided to release additional photos and videos to substantiate claims of a relationship between the two after reviewing Gold Medalist’s statement on March 18th.
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