The person who sparked rumours online about alleged sexual misconduct by South Korean actor Lee Yi-kyung admitted on Oct 22 that the purported images of illicit text messages from Lee were fabricated.
The individual, who claimed to be a German national, posted on X that the images posted earlier on a separate blog platform were initially uploaded “for fun”, and that the person now feels guilty about the situation.
“I never thought the post would garner such attention. But as I wrote (the post) and used AI images, I think I gradually came to believe they were real,” the person wrote. All content on both accounts has since been deleted.
On Oct 20, the person claimed in an anonymous online blog post to have had a conversation with Lee, accusing the 36-year-old star of K-drama Marry My Husband (2024) of making unwanted sexual advances and requesting explicit photos.
The post, titled Exposing The Real Lee Yi-kyung, included what the author claimed were screen captures of the lewd chats that supposedly took place via messaging applications.
Lee’s agency, Sangyoung Entertainment, released a statement that same day, vowing to take legal action against what it said were malicious rumours.
Multiple netizens also suggested that the images were fake, pointing to details like the conversation appearing to have taken place on both Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy devices.
The author deleted the original post later in the day and wrote on the blog that the intent was not to seek money, as some netizens had suggested. However, the individual reiterated the claim that the messages were real.
But on Oct 22, the person admitted that the whole thing had been a prank. It is unclear to what extent the blogger’s identity claims, such as being German, were true.
All the posts were written in Korean. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
