By Kim Rahn
Controversy is growing over the military service exemption of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s son after a lawmaker claimed his medical record has been fabricated.
Not only the two sides but citizens and the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) have been embroiled in the argument, with a medical doctor’s suspicion of the authenticity of the record fanning the controversy.
The junior Park said Monday that he would disclose the record soon.
Park’s 27-year-old son, Ju-sin, joined the Air Force last August but was sent home four days later due to pain in his thigh. He had a second checkup in December with the MMA, submitting a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan film. The administration concluded that he had a herniated disc, “forcing” him to take alternative military service at a public organization.
Since earlier this year, however, independent lawmaker Kang Yong-seok has claimed Park’s son fabricated medical records. He showed some video clips in which the junior Park was bending himself or running up the stairs, claiming his motions were very normal and a herniated disc patient couldn’t make such motions.
On Feb. 13, the lawmaker also made public the MRI film, which he claimed the junior Park had submitted to the MMA. Kang raised suspicions that the film may not actually be Park’s.
“The person in the film has very serious backbone disc problems, and such a patient cannot move normally as seen in the video clips. I think the junior Park may have presented someone else’s medical film as his in order to dodge the military service,” Kang claimed.
On the claim, MMA said the junior Park underwent a computerized tomography (CT) scanning at the administration, separately from the MRI result which he had submitted. “Our medical staff compared the CT result with the MRI film and confirmed the film was Park’s,” an MMA official said.
But he added they haven’t confirmed whether the MRI film Park presented and the one Kang made public were identical.
Kang hasn’t disclosed in detail how he obtained the film, only saying that a whistleblower was involved.
Amid the dispute, Han Seok-joo at Severance Hospital supported Kang, calling for the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) to inspect the claim.
“I became convinced of Kang’s accusation after seeing the MRI film Kang presented. According to subcutaneous fat in the film, the person should be overweight, while Park’s son is slim. I’m almost sure that he submitted someone else’s MRI,” the doctor said on the BAI’s online bulletin board.
Park’s side first said it was not worthy of a response. But as the controversy grew, it said he would disclose the MRI film at MMA.
“Park’s son visited the MMA today and agreed to the disclosure. He will receive the medical records from the administration and make them public through his lawyer. The procedure will take about 10 days,” city spokesman Liu Gyoung-gee said.