On November 24, South Korean prosecutors indicted Netflix actor, O Yeong-su,  on charges of sexual misconduct. The actor is best known for his role in Netflix’s Squid Game. In 2017, a woman claimed that the actor touched her inappropriately. The allegations leveled against Yeong-su have been refuted. In December 2021, the unidentified woman reported Yeong-su to the South Korean police.  The case was closed by law enforcement in April 2022 without Yeong-su facing any charges of sexual misconduct. However, prosecutors in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, reopened the case.

The complaint was reexamined by Suwon prosecutors, who brought charges against him on Thursday. Speaking to local media about the alleged exchange between himself and the unknown woman, the star of Squid Games reiterated his denial of the allegations. Yeong-su denied any other sexual misconduct or inappropriate touching and told the local press that he “held hands with the woman to show the way around a lake.” The actor from Netflix also apologized to the alleged victim last year, but not before entering a second plea and denying the charge. Yeong-su claimed that he offered her an apology, but that he did so in the hope that she wouldn’t make a fuss about it.

The actor asserted that his apology to the woman “doesn’t mean that I admit the charges,” doubling down on his denial. In January 2022, Yeong-su won a Golden Globe for his performance in the popular Netflix series that followed a group of desperate people through a series of life-or-death games for the chance to win millions of dollars.
His role in the series earned him widespread praise in South Korea. Even though the show depicted a capitalist society in a very dark and dystopian way, the South Korean president praised Yeong-su and said it gave viewers hope for humanity. – Steve Sijenyi