AWARD-winning "Squid Game" star O Yeung-su has been indicted on charges of sexual misconduct in South Korea.
The 78-year-old actor, who played the character Oh Il-nam in the smash-hit Netflix series, has been accused of molesting a woman in 2017.
Yeung-su denied the allegations against him when questioned by authorities, according to the South Korea-based Yonhap news agency.
The actor – who won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Squid Game" – insists that he just held his alleged victim's hand.
He said he had apologised to the woman, but added that it wasn't an admission of guilt.
"I just held her hand to guide the way around the lake," he told Korean news broadcaster JTBC. "I apologized because [she] said she wouldn’t make a fuss about it but it doesn’t mean that I admit the charges."
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However, the prosecution judged that they had secured evidence to support the allegation of harassment and transferred the case to trial.
His accuser originally filed her complaint against him in December of last year, but the case was closed in April.
It has since been reopened after the alleged victim asked for it to be further investigated.
An official from the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office told AFP that everything reported by local media about the veteran actor "is not factually incorrect".
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Korea's ministry of culture recently pulled a government TV commercial featuring Yeong-su off-air following the indictment.
Yeong-su, who has acted in his native country for more than 50 years, had his breakout role as Oh Il-nam, the oldest game participant in the survival series which became Netflix's most-watched show of all time.
He has also appeared as King Lear in the Shakespeare play, as well as the South Korean TV series "Chocolate".
A second season of Squid Game is said to be in early development at Netflix, and is expected to be released in 2024.
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