The Ministry of Justice decided to clarify the legal grounds for banning entry to people who renounced their nationality to evade military service and then try to enter the country. The aim is to specify related provisions in the Enforcement Rules of the Immigration Act to prevent a repeat of military service evasion controversies like the case of singer Yoo Seung-jun (U.S. name Steve Seung Jun Yoo).
Cha Yong-ho, head of the Ministry of Justice's Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters, said at a public business meeting of the Ministry of Justice on the 22nd, "We will clearly define the grounds under the Immigration Act that allow us to ban entry of military service evaders who have caused public controversy, such as the Steve Yoo case."
The Deputy Minister said, "We will list and newly establish provisions for those subject to entry bans in the Enforcement Rules of the Immigration Act, and specify that military service evaders are included among those subject to entry bans." Under the current Immigration Act, the Minister of Justice may ban the entry of a person for whom there is sufficient reason to believe they could harm public order or good morals.
Minister Jung Sung-ho also emphasized the need to restrict the entry of military service evaders. Jung said, "Not fulfilling the duty of military service, renouncing nationality, and then coming back (to Korea) to seek personal gain is, in fact, a bad act," adding, "(It is) anti-social order, and isn't that precisely a traitorous act?"
Yoo debuted in 1997 and worked in Korea, but faced controversy over dodging military service after obtaining U.S. citizenship ahead of enlistment. The government restricted Yoo's entry in 2002. Since then, Yoo applied for a visa for overseas Koreans (F-4), but the Consulate General in Los Angeles (LA) rejected it, and administrative lawsuits followed.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Yoo in 2020 and 2023. However, the government views the Supreme Court's judgment as pointing out procedural problems in the visa denial process, not as requiring that a visa be issued to Yoo. In the third administrative lawsuit filed by Yoo, he won at the first trial on Aug. last year, and the appeal trial is set to begin in Jul.
Plans to improve the breach of trust offense were also discussed at the meeting. The Ministry of Justice plans to prepare a reform plan by Jun. based on case law from the past five years, academic discussions, and the results of commissioned research. Lee Eung-cheol, director general of the Ministry of Justice's Criminal Affairs Bureau, said, "We are reviewing improvements to the breach of trust offense by comprehensively analyzing our in-house analysis of some 3,300 cases over five years, academic discussions, and commissioned research results."
Jung said, "There is a consensus that businesspeople should be able to make management decisions freely and more proactively," adding, "I hope we can speed up the improvements." The government and the Democratic Party of Korea are pushing to abolish the breach of trust offense, saying it can function as an excessive economic penalty that discourages the managerial decisions of corporations.