Opposition Party Suspects of Military Exemption of Son of Sohn Yong-Rae, Commissioner of National Tax Service

Rep. Park Se-Whan raised questions about the military exemption of the second son of Sohn Young-Rae, commissioner of National Tax Service, yesterday.

Rep. Park distributed a briefing material raising questions about the military exemption of the second son of commissioner Sohn in advance, he did not mention the names and the content of questions in the material, saying ``I am going to ask detailed questions in a written document since it is a matter involving the son of a `top-ranking official`. ``

Rep. Park asserted in his written question that ``the second son of commission Sohn was exempted from the military duty due to the atopy dermatitis in August 1996 and received treatment until March last year. But he did not have medical treatment since then.``

He also insisted that ``if he was exempted by the atopy dermatitis, which is a kind of chronic dermatitis, he would have been treated by now. However, the son of Mr. Sohn has no record of medical treatment since March of last year. This increases suspicions.``

In response, commissioner Sohn explained, ``he was exempted by the diagnosis of a specialist in Youngdong Severance Hospital. He does not have a domestic medical record since he was in the U.S. for language study from March to December last year. But he continued his treatment by medication during the period.``

Commissioner Sohn also said, ``my son had suffered from congenital fever and showed symptoms of atopy dermatitis when he was a first grader in Middle school and had medical treatment at a local hospital in Yeoksam-dong. But having no significant recovery, we changed his hospital to a university hospital since 1993. He still has medical treatment once every ten days, every month. He also had a medical treatment early this month. He has to wear gloves to do things even now.``

The Defense Ministry also presented its answer, stating ``the second son of commissioner Sohn was found to have atopy dermatitis in a physical examination conducted at a designated office of the Military Manpower Administration. Therefore, [the Military] decided to exempt him after reviewing the military diagnosis by a specialist in Yongdong Severance Hospital.``

In-Soo Song issong@donga.com