South Korean broadcaster KBS has filed a defamation accusation against a YouTube panelist for his alleged sexist remarks about a female KBS reporter. 

The libel accusation directed at a reporter from the Aju Business Daily was filed with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Tuesday and joined by four individual reporters from the public broadcaster. 

KBS said that while it will actively accommodate healthy criticism and use such criticism to improve its output, it will not tolerate malicious slander and will strongly deal with it. 

The Aju reporter, surnamed Jang, appeared on a current affairs YouTube show led by liberal pundit Rhyu Si-min early last week. He claimed prosecutors looking into the allegations against former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family leaked classified information regarding criminal suspects to the KBS reporter simply because they liked her. 

Referring to the KBS reporter by her full name, Jang argued prosecutors may have had an ulterior motive about leaking to her and there was a "very intimate" relationship between the two sides. 

The Aju reporter and Rhyu later apologized for the remarks after they drew criticism.