Today, Starship stated in an official press release, ŌĆ£We recognize the seriousness of this issue and are contacting the memberŌĆÖs classmates as well as his teachers and acquaintances at the time to do our best to verify the facts. We ask for your understanding that we require some time to check various issues as a long time has passed since then, and if the writer allows for it, we are open for a conversation.ŌĆØ Earlier on Feb 22, a post revealing that Kihyun bullied, robbed his classmate of his money, and made him run an errand for cigarettes was posted on an online community. The writer claimed, ŌĆ£I have pictures of him drinking and smoking with other bullies. It might have been a time of immaturity for someone, but it was a time of indelible scar for someone.ŌĆØ He then stated that he even tried to commit suicide because of such painful memories. However, Starship heralded legal actions against those who spread false rumors. ŌĆ£In a different case, one individual shared a post with the same content in both 2015 and 2021. At the time, we got in touch with the writer and confirmed that the posts were false. We had planned to take legal action as a way to protect our artist, but considering the many circumstances of the person who spread the post, we had them promise to reflect on their actions and prevent the incident from happening again. We left a handwritten record of the promise and showed them leniency. We can no longer look idly on these intentional and repetitive actions continuing despite the fact that [the promise] clearly remains in the handwritten document, so we will be holding them legally responsible by any possible means that can be taken by the company.ŌĆØ ┬Ā Source (1, 2)
