Singer jailed over draft-dodging ghost claim

Singer Kim Woo-joo

Singer and music producer Kim Woo-joo, 30, indicted on charges of evading military service by claiming to have a mental illness and seeing ghosts, has been sentenced to a year behind bars.

The first and second trials brought down a one-year sentence, citing the evasion was planned over a long time and there was a need to punish Kim considering not only the importance of military service but issues of fairness.

Kim was called up in 2004, but delayed going into the military saying he had to attend college. In March 2012, he started pretending he had a mental illness.

He claimed he "started seeing ghosts eight years ago," and that "he was taken to the emergency room after fainting after seeing a ghost."

He reportedly saw a psychiatrist 42 times.

Kim received a written diagnosis for visual and auditory hallucinations as well as insomnia and submitted it to the Military Manpower Administration. He was then notified to serve as a public service worker last October.

Kim was a member of a hip-hop group but has not been in the music industry since 2012.