Yoo apologizes for avoiding military service in South Korea. (Photo : YouTube/K-PopCulture News)
One of the former K-pop idols who enjoyed massive popularity in the late 90s cannot enter South Korea. Korean-American Yoo Seung Joon aka Steve Yoo lost his recent appeal to gain a visa on Feb. 23, Thursday, in his second and final trial.
Yoo's appeal was denied by Seoul's Supreme Court which reportedly banned him from any request of legal appeals in the future. His first trial was held in September 2016 where he was also denied of his visa request. The former K-pop idol, who dodged Korea's mandatory military service, is still not welcomed in Korea, AllKPop reported.
Yoo was among the highest selling artists in South Korea, selling over 5 million albums. In 2002, he renounced his South Korean citizenship for a naturalized United States citizenship which ended his successful career in the entertainment industry. Such action was seen by the Korean government as desertion.
Yoo became the first celebrity to avoid the mandatory military service. He was deported from South Korea and banned from entering the country.
South Korea implements conscription or mandatory military service to all its 18- to 35-year old male citizens. The government gives tough penalties to those who would neglect their duty.
The Korean-American singer went to China following his ban from South Korea to establish an acting career. He tried his luck in entering Korea again after 15 years by appealing to file a lawsuit for denying hi visa.
It has been years since Yoo's visa application to enter his country continues to get declined so the former K-pop idol has to keep trying. He begged on his knees in a video to be accepted to South Korea again, expressing his readiness to accept any condition the government would require. However, some netizens heard him shouting an expletive at the end of the video, thinking that the recording had finished.
The South Korea's justice system has been steadfast in rejecting Yoo lest he would affect the minds of the military personnel. However, the singer-actor claimed that the young people do not know him.
"There are so many who don't recognize me," Yoo told JongAng Daily and yet somehow I am someone who can "impede a social order?"
Here is a scoop of Yoo's case:
