'The Glory' director admits to having been a bully in school

Director Ahn Gil-ho speaks during a press conference for ″The Glory″ at a hotel in Dongdaemun District, central Seoul, on Dec. 20, 2022. [NEWS1]

Director Ahn Gil-ho behind the hit Netflix series "The Glory" admitted to having bullied people in school through an official statement from his attorney on Sunday.

Ahn had previously denied all accusations of bullying when news outlets reported about an anonymous post on an online forum calling him out for physically assaulting younger students at an international school in the Philippines in 1996.

"Ahn apologizes to everyone who was hurt by his actions," the statement from law firm Jipyong, released Sunday, read. "He had a girlfriend while attending school in the Philippines in 1996, and when he heard that his girlfriend was being teased because of him, he acted wrongly and hurt others."

Ahn said through his attorney that he "asks for forgiveness from everyone who was hurt through the incident" and that he "wants to apologize in person if the victims would so allow."

On Friday, Ahn was reported by local media outlet Dailian to have been accused of school bullying.

The author of the post claimed to have learned of “The Glory” only recently because they do not live in Korea and discovered that Ahn was the director through a chat room of schoolmates from the international school.

“I do not want to cause controversy just because Ahn is doing well,” the user wrote. “I just find it absurd and unforgivable that a school bully himself would direct a television show about bringing school bullies to justice. So, I decided to make this public.”

When the Korea JoongAng Daily contacted Netflix Korea on Friday, the company said it was “looking into the situation.”

Ahn spoke to Yonhap in a phone call Friday and initially denied that he had ever physically assaulted younger students or any classmates.

A person who claimed that they had attended school at the same time as the original accuser and director Ahn also spoke to Yonhap and said that it was “not possible” that Ahn could not remember or is not aware of what took place.

“People were seriously injured after that incident,” the person said in the phone call with Yonhap. “It was a widely mentioned incident across the school at the time, and I don’t think it is possible that Ahn does not remember.”

Ahn's then-girlfriend who was involved in the incident also spoke to Yonhap and said that the accusations were true.

The anonymous user and author of the original post about Ahn had told Dailian that “if Ahn denies our claims, classmates who have been bullied and assaulted by Ahn at the international school are ready to testify” and that “if Ahn says he will take legal action against these allegations, we will also actively respond.”

Part 2 of “The Glory” premiered on Netflix at 5 p.m. in Korea Friday. The series was No. 3 in Netflix’s rankings of non-English language shows in January, and its Part 2 hit No. 1 upon release.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]