Park Si-hoo Questioned Over Rape Charge

Actor Park Si-hoo arrives at the Nokbeon Police Station in western Seoul for questioning on Friday.

Police plan to summon actor Park Si-hoo for further questioning on charges that he raped a 22-year-old aspiring actress. "We did not set a specific time to summon him and the next round of questioning may take place privately as he wishes", a police spokesman said.

Park finally appeared for questioning on Friday accompanied by his attorney and was grilled for about nine hours. He had repeatedly failed to obey a summons in the previous two weeks.

On his way out of the police station afterwards, Park told throngs of reporters camped outside, "Although there is much for me to tell you, all I can say now is that I responded dutifully to the police summons and the truth will prevail".

Park's defense team also submitted to police records of text messages sent by his accuser via messaging service Kakao Talk.

A female friend of the aspiring actress apparently sent her a text message advising her to either "get a lot of money" from the actor or "bring him down".

Park's accuser allegedly responded, "I'm going to show them how well I can act by looking like the victim".

But police said they intend to use the Kakao Talk records merely as reference, and other messages actually support the accuser's claims. "Park has yet to present evidence showing that the sex was consensual", a police spokesman said.

Police have come under fire for shoddy investigation since it was revealed that they did not bother to check the text messages in the two weeks since the probe began. Only one week's worth of messages are saved on the Kakao Talk main server, and Park's lawyer, rather than the police, had sought a warrant to obtain the records.