India, Oct. 29 -- Former The Boyz member Ju Haknyeon has won a defamation case against an entertainment reporter who linked him to prostitution. A South Korean court has ordered the journalist to pay 200 million won (around $140,000) in damages, ruling that the claims were published without enough evidence to support them. The verdict, delivered by the Seoul Central District Court's Civil Division 25 on October 23, comes more than a year after the allegations cost Haknyeon his place in the K-pop group, The Boyz and led to the termination of his contract with the agency One Hundred.

According to legal sources cited by Yonhap News, Judge Kwon Ki Man ruled that reporter Choi had defamed Ju Haknyeon by claiming that the singer had paid for a...