Celebrity soldiers heavily punished for violating code of conduct

The South Korean military authorities have taken a severe disciplinary action against many soldiers of a celebrity unit who turned out to have violated the military code of conduct and gone AWOL. Those to be disciplined include Sangchu (real name: Lee Sang-cheol) and Seven (Choi Dong-wook).

A Defense Ministry source said on Thursday, “Seven out of eight celebrity unit soldiers are given jail time in the military prison and one being under probation.” Sangchu and Seven, who went to massage parlors after a military concert in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province on June 21, were given a 10-day lockup in the military prison. A television program captured them entering several massage parlors at late night and created a social backlash. Another source said, “Although we found that the two soldiers did not go there for sex but for massage service, we decided to give them a spell in a military jail because they violated the military code of conduct and went AWOL.”

The ministry ruled other five entertainment unit soldiers a 4-day in a military prison for illegally bringing mobile phones. A military prison term is a disciplinary action that can lock up a soldier in a military prison within 15 days without a trial. A soldier who is given a military prison term is imprisoned in a specific place and must serve for as many more days as he served in a jail. The record, however, is not kept unlike criminal punishment.