S. Korea Olympic soccer player excused from draft

Park Jong-woo was barred from the medal ceremony after he held up a sign reading “Dokdo is our land” while celebrating his team's 2-0 win over Japan last Friday.

The Seoul-controlled islands, known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, are the subject of a decades-old territorial dispute. The row flared again last Friday when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a surprise visit to the islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), hours before the match.

After a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Park was not on the podium as his teammates collected their bronze medals. The IOC, which bans political gestures at the Games, opened an inquiry.

The controversy raised questions about whether the 23-year-old would be exempted from about two years of military service, which is compulsory for all able-bodied South Korean men. Sports officials exempt Olympic medalists as an inducement to win, and Seoul's sports minister said late Monday that Park would be allowed to skip the time in uniform whatever the result of the IOC probe.

“Our military law ... says those who win third place or above at the Olympic games will be exempted from the service, and it never mentions an actual medal,” Choe Kwang-Shik said in an interview with TV Chosun channel.

“He won the third place in Olympics football ... as part of a team,” Choe said.

A Korea Football Association (KFA) official said earlier that Park had taken the sign from a fan in the crowd after the match, stressing that the incident was not pre-planned.

IOC president Jacques Rogge was quoted as saying that Park's action was a clear “political statement” and the rule should be strictly honored.

Rogge, in an interview in London with South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, said an IOC commission would decide what action to take against the player based on a report from soccer's world governing body FIFA.

The KFA meanwhile has said it expressed regret in an email to its Japanese counterpart body about the incident. But it denied Japanese media reports that it had made an apology.

SHARE CLOSE
Blogger		Google+
Live Journal		Plurk
Stumble Upon

Tweet

	PREVIOUS ARTICLE
	NZ Valerie Adams celebrates late Olympic gold

NEXT ARTICLE
Irelanders revel in best Olympic medal haul in 50 years

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email

Submit