This file photo provided by SBS shows Korean-American singer Steve Yoo. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 13 (Korea Bizwire) — An appellate court ruled Thursday in favor of Steve Yoo, a Korean American singer, in a lawsuit he filed to reverse the South Korean government’s decision to deny him an entry visa for renouncing his Korean citizenship to evade mandatory military service.
The Seoul High Court ruled that even if a South Korean man renounces his citizenship in order to dodge the military service, it would be too much to deny him a visa even after he turns 38 years old, a threshold after which the military service requirement is exempted under the law.
Yoo, also known by his Korean name Yoo Seung-jun, has been barred from entering South Korea after he became a U.S. citizen and renounced his Korean citizenship in 2002, with the alleged goal of dodging his military duty.
Yoo first filed a lawsuit in 2015 after the South Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles refused to issue him a visa. In 2020, Yoo won a Supreme Court ruling that the visa refusal was procedurally flawed.
After the top court’s ruling, Yoo applied again for a visa to enter Korea, but the consulate general again turned it down, prompting Yoo to file a second suit with the Seoul Administrative Court in 2020 to reverse the decision.
The consulate general argued that the top court’s ruling was about procedural flaws and did not mean that Yoo should be allowed a visa.
But the appellate court ruled that Yoo should be issued a visa as long as he does not pose a threat to national security, social order or public well-being.
With his powerful dance music, Yoo was highly popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, though the military dodging allegations sparked a public uproar.
Military service of roughly two years is mandatory for all able-bodied young South Korean men as the country is technically at war with North Korea.
(Yonhap)
