Seo Kyung-duk on national football team controversy: “An international embarrassment ... It’s time to overhaul the military exemption system”

[Financial News]  After remarks about military-service benefits by some players on the South Korea national football team, which won gold at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, were covered by major foreign media outlets including the UK’s BBC, Sungshin Women’s University Professor Seo Kyung-duk criticized the remarks as “an international embarrassment.”
On the 8th, Professor Seo said, “The UK’s public broadcaster BBC reported on the 6th that ‘South Korea national football team captain Lee Gi-hyeok apologized after boasting about being able to avoid mandatory military service after winning an Asian Games gold medal.’”
According to Professor Seo, the BBC said, “26-year-old Lee Gi-hyeok apologized in an interview after returning home and on social media, saying, ‘I’m deeply sorry to the fans currently serving in the military and to everyone who showed their support.’” It also reported, “Most South Korean men must serve 18 to 21 months on active duty before turning 28, but the South Korean government grants special military-service benefits to Asian Games gold medalists and Olympic medalists.”
Professor Seo said, “Many major foreign media outlets besides the BBC are also giving extensive coverage to this incident,” and criticized the players, saying, “This will go down as a prime example of the country suffering international embarrassment because of some of its national team players.”
He rebuked the players, saying, “Park Seung-su posted a photo on his social media wearing a discharge cap, while Choi Woo-jin posted on his social media as he walked with a limp, took off a sneaker and held it up while showing his gold medal, sparking widespread outrage. A national team player should know how to maintain basic ‘dignity’ in their words and actions.” He then stressed, “It’s time to overhaul the military exemption system.”
Meanwhile, calls to overhaul the special military-service system are spreading into political circles.
On the 7th, People Power Party lawmaker Joo Ho-young introduced as lead sponsor a partial revision to the Military Service Act that would abolish the blanket criteria for assigning Asian Games first-place finishers to arts and sports personnel.
On the same day, Minister of National Defense Kang Shin-chul also said at the National Assembly Defense Committee’s parliamentary audit, referring to the words and actions of some players that sparked the controversy, “I found it deeply regrettable that they belittled the sacred duty of national defense.” He added, “The Defense Ministry’s goal is to gradually reduce special military-service benefits and ultimately abolish them.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter