Were These All Done By Only Two Brokers?

The number of pro baseball players, including former players, and entertainers who were exempted from military service by pretending to have kidney troubles has been discovered to be much higher than the 80 originally reported by police. As the number is found as high as 130, this has intensified the stir in society over the matter.

In particular, since it has been found that a 38-year old military service broker, identified as Woo, had helped people avoid their military service using the same method for three years even before he started to work with a 29-year old former pro baseball player, identified as Kim, the number of people involved in this scandal is expected to increase significantly.

Suspicion Growing Like a Snowball—

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Investigation Bureau announced that it concluded yesterday that 130 people received military service exemptions after analyzing Woo and Kim’s notes, phone conversations, and their statements.

The police decided to investigate 80 people first for whom the Military Service Law (effective for three years) is still effective and to report the results on its investigation on the remaining 50 people to the Military Manpower Administration

According to the police, among these 80 people, there are 50 pro baseball players, one pro soccer player, four entertainers, seven college students, and 18 office workers. If counting them by the groups the baseball players belong to, LG has ten, Samsung and Doosan have eight each, Hyundai and Lotte have six each, SK and Hanhwa have five each, and Kia has two.

The police explained that there were only 30 who actually received a military service exemption and that the rest were at the stage of their physical examination for conscription after already paying money to the brokers.

The police banned the 20 suspects from departing the country, but it reported that gagman Shin, 26, who is one of the suspects, already left for China late last month.

Meanwhile, Cho Jin-ho, 29, who came back to the domestic league from the U.S. major league baseball, reported to the police accompanied by his lawyer and acknowledged his crime. The police will request an arrest warrant for Cho for violating the Military Service Law.

Can “Nephritis” Be Manipulated?--

Woo said that he made a special medicine to pass all the three steps of the physical examination for conscription by himself. However, there are many aspects that are suspicious.

Woo said to the police, “I got the idea when I heard people sitting next to me in a subway train saying that they were exempted from military service by pretending to have a kidney malfunction. Then, I researched the symptoms of kidney troubles to make a special medicine.”

However, it is being pointed out that there is almost no possibility that a business major who has no experience in the medical field invents such a medical technology to pass three stages of medical examinations.

The police reported that according to the National Scientific Investigation Research Institute’s analysis of the components of the medicine, the medicine he used contained a high level of proteins. Still, the police are expressing doubts if such a medicine could be made by an individual.

Oh Ha-young, a professor at Samsung Seoul Hospital, said, “Temporary bleeding or protein existence in urine is not regarded as kidney disease. The military doctors must be well aware of this. Even if the exam result said the candidate had a kidney problem, he should have asked for a second opinion from other doctors.”

Kim Hyung-gyu, a professor at Korea University An-am Hospital, said, “Hospitals don’t write medical certificates for kidney disease without detailed tests. It doesn’t make sense unless there was somebody else who cooperated with the brokers.”

Therefore, there are raised suspicions regarding the complicity of this crime.

Are Sons of High Profile Figures Implicated As Well?—

The police said that “the majority of these people are baseball players and there are some ordinary citizens who were introduced to the brokers through people in the baseball field,” when it reported Sunday that approximately 80 people are being investigated.

Woo, however, started to work together with Kim, a former baseball player, since 1999. Because of this, there comes to our attention a suspicion that Woo might have contacted more people other than baseball players, such as sons of high profile figures, during the three years before Kim joined him.

Besides, as the number of people involved in this crime increases, there is another suspicion that there may be brokers other than Woo and Kim.

needjung@donga.com