Kim Jin-ya (26, FC Seoul), a former national soccer player who received a military service exemption by winning a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games, was later found to have submitted a false certificate of volunteer service in lieu of military duty. Kim filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to cancel the warning issued by the government but lost the case.
According to the legal community on the 4th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 12 (Chief Judge Kang Jae-won) ruled against Kim on the 29th of last month in the lawsuit he filed against the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to cancel the “warning related to public service for sports personnel.”
Kim won the men’s soccer gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and was enlisted as an arts and sports personnel in August 2020. Instead of military service, he received the special military service benefit of undergoing 4 weeks of basic military training and performing 544 hours of volunteer work in the sports field over 34 months.
Kim performed public service during middle and high school, but problems were found in the public service certificates he submitted to the government in November-December 2022. In November, he wrote that he performed volunteer work at both the middle school and high school on the same date and time, and the supporting photos were identical. The certificates submitted in December were found to have been forged by Kim’s agent, not by the schools.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a warning to Kim in July last year, stating that he had submitted false volunteer service records. Accordingly, 34 hours were added to his service time.
In the administrative lawsuit to cancel the warning, Kim claimed, “It was not intentionally forged; it was entirely a mistake made during the process of the agent preparing the documents on my behalf.”
However, the court said, “The ultimate responsibility for submitting the public service certificates lies with the plaintiff himself,” and “The forged parts had clearly different handwriting and font size, so if the plaintiff had paid attention, he would have known,” rejecting his claim.
On the day of the ruling, Kim posted on his social media, “I apologize for causing concern,” but maintained his position, saying, “I have never exaggerated my volunteer service.”
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