By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) schools are suspected of having admitted Korean students in breach of the country's Education Law that bans Korean nationals from attending them.

Korean authorities say no Korean student is allowed to enroll in U.S. schools here. ``It is illegal under the Education Law for Korean nationals to attend American DoD schools. If there are Korean students there, they should be expelled,'' said Lee Ji-sun, an official of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

However, the Korea District Superintendent's office of the DoD Schools said, ``There are four Korean national students enrolled in our schools who are not affiliated with the U. S. military.''

It said that those students have followed the proper DoD and host nation procedures to enroll in the schools as tuition paying, space-permitted students. ``There have been no Korean national students enrolled in our schools without the proper documentation,'' said Terry A. Greene, chief of staff and education of the schools.

Asked about eligibility for Korean students, DoD schools said the Korean Education Ministry has cleared the way for Korean nationals to attend the schools.

``For a Korean national to attend a DoD-Korea school, the students must obtain a waiver from the Ministry of Education. If a waiver is obtained, the student may be enrolled on a space available, tuition paying status,'' Greene said, adding, ``The most frequent reason for the approval of a waiver request is when a Korean diplomatic family or a Korean family representing a Korean corporation has taken an overseas assignment for multiple years and the student would have difficulty assimilating back into the Korean education system.''

However, education ministry officials said they have never issued ``waiver'' documents and the ministry doesn't provide these for individual students. ``There is no way for us to issue documents for individuals. We only provide authorized documents to government agencies and other education authorities, not to students,'' said Sung Samje, a ministry director.

Still, the superintendent office of the U.S. army schools said, ``We do have documents from the Ministry of Education on file.''

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr