Kim Soo-Hyun Exonerated: Police Confirm Kim Sae-Ron's 'Minor Relationship' Voice Note Was 'Fake and Made by AI'

In a definitive breakthrough that has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry, actor Kim Soo-hyun has been cleared of long-standing grooming allegations.

An exhaustive forensic investigation by the Seoul Gangnam Police Station has confirmed that the explosive audio recording used to accuse the star of dating the late actress Kim Sae-ron while she was a minor was entirely fabricated using artificial intelligence.

The findings have prompted prosecutors to seek an immediate arrest warrant for Kim Se-ui, the head of the controversial YouTube channel HoverLab, effectively dismantling a multi-year smear campaign that heavily impacted the Queen of Tears actor's career.

Evidence 'Fake and Made by AI'

The controversy reached a boiling point last year when HoverLab played a highly damaging audio file during a live press conference. Following the actress's death by suicide in February last year, intense public scrutiny raised allegations that Kim Soo-hyun was partly responsible.

In the recording, a voice believed to be Kim Sae-ron claimed she had been romantically involved with Kim Soo-hyun since her middle school days. Because of this, Kim Soo-hyun held an emotional press conference denying the allegations.

However, in the new development of the investigation, official police documents have now exposed the recording as an outright digital forgery designed to intentionally mislead the public, as reported by The Korean Times.

'The suspect held a press conference on May 7 last year and played an audio file of the deceased's voice, which was fake and made by AI. He then falsely claimed the deceased had been dating the accused since she was middle school and they had their first sexual encounter during her second year of middle school, during winter break,' the arrest warrant read.

'The suspect distributed false information with the intent to slander the victim, despite being well aware that actor Kim had never dated the deceased while she was a minor.'

Text Messages Manipulated

Beyond the fake audio, the police investigation exposed a systematic manipulation of digital text records initially presented as historical proof of the relationship in March last year.

As reported by The Straits Times, investigators concluded that the alleged KakaoTalk conversations released by the channel as evidence of a 2016 relationship between the two actors had been deliberately altered.

The police revealed that the HoverLab chief received 11 screenshots of text exchanges from the bereaved family of Kim Sae-ron and altered seven distinct parts of those images.

Crucially, the modifications included swapping the name of an unidentified original conversation partner with 'Kim Soo-hyun' to fabricate a digital paper trail. The edited materials were subsequently broadcast to millions of viewers to make them appear to be genuine romantic exchanges.

Financial Motives and Criminal Prosecution

The investigation has concluded that the driving force behind the targeted defamation campaign was financial gain. Police documents reveal that the suspect knowingly spread the damaging information for financial motives, including YouTube revenue. The arrest warrant read that the suspect 'was well aware that actor Kim Soo-hyun had not dated the deceased while she was a minor.'

Kim Soo-hyun had initially filed criminal defamation complaints in March 2025, maintaining that the pair had only briefly and legally dated between the summer of 2019 and the autumn of 2020, well after Kim Sae-ron had attained legal adulthood.

Furthermore, the legal representative for Kim Sae-ron's family has been officially booked by authorities as a suspected accomplice for actively facilitating the distribution of the manipulated evidence.

While the HoverLab head has publicly denied the charges during a recent livestream, claiming the legal action is an attempt to silence his channel, his fate rests with the judiciary. A formal hearing at the Seoul Central District Court is scheduled for 26 May 2026 to determine whether the suspect will be remanded in custody as the criminal prosecution moves forward.