Latest news with #SeoulAdministrativeCourt
Korea Herald
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Korea Herald
Student athlete disqualified from college admission for wearing cap with school emblem
Court says swimming cap should be considered part of swimsuit The Seoul Administrative Court upheld the disqualification of a student athlete who was denied admission to a university in 2024 after wearing a swim cap bearing the emblem of one's high school during the practical entrance examination. The applicant, a water polo player, challenged the decision, arguing that the university's admission guidelines ban only names or school affiliations on swimsuits — not on swim caps. However, the court ruled that the swim cap could reasonably be interpreted as part of the swimsuit under conventional usage of the term. The Korean term "suyeongbok" literally translates as "swimming clothes." "Regarding the swimming cap as part of the swimsuit is in keeping with the conventional interpretation of the word (swimsuit) ... Considering that the rule is to ensure a fair applications process by assessing each applicant's abilities in no regards to one's affiliations, there is no reason to treat swimsuit and swimming cap differently," the court said. The plaintiff also argued that two other applicants were not disqualified despite wearing marked swimming caps, but the court pointed out that markings on the mentioned caps did not show their school affiliations. Addressing the plaintiff's claim that no examiners warned them about the disqualifying attire during the test, the court stated that the absence of such an on-site warning could not be construed as assurance that the applicant would not face disqualification.
Korea Herald
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Following romanization guideline for names on passports not mandatory: court
Online title(?): You can now romanize your name however you like on your passport Names on South Korean passports do not have to follow the government's official romanization rules, according to a recent court ruling. In its ruling unveiled Monday, the Seoul Administrative Court sided with the plaintiff in a case against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overturning administrative procedures that denied a name change based on government romanization standards. According to the country's Passport Act, romanization of Korean names on Korean passports should follow the Ministry of Culture's romanization guideline. However, the court ruled that the guideline does not carry binding force, as there is no evidence that allowing alternative spelling would result in immigration control issues, or compromise the credibility of Korean passports. The ruling came after a couple applied for their daughter's passport in 2023, requesting that her name 'Tae' be written as 'Ta' in the English alphabet. However, the passport was issued with the former spelling, which followed official romanization guidelines. The local authority in Suwon, which processed the passport on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, had deemed 'Ta' inconsistent with the romanization rules stipulated by the Culture Ministry. When the parents asked for the name to be changed to their originally requested spelling, the Foreign Ministry rejected the request, citing the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act, which allows changes only under limited circumstances. The court stated in its decision that although the requested spelling, 'Ta,' may not strictly align with official romanization rules, the rules are essentially a non-binding guideline — not an enforceable legal standard. The court emphasized that unless a requested name change could clearly undermine the international credibility of Korean passports or be exploited for criminal purposes, the government should not refuse such requests. The ruling highlighted that rigidly applying romanization rules undermines the intent to allow flexibility in passport name spellings, particularly in cases where the name requested reflects commonly accepted English naming practices.
Korea Herald
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Court rules in favor of Korean American that suspicion does not constitute draft dodging
A South Korean court recently ruled in favor of a Korean American man, who challenged the state for dismissing his request to reinstate his South Korean nationality based on the suspicion he had illegally refused to do his mandatory military service here, according to court officials on Monday. Seoul Administrative Court said a simple suspicion is not enough to reject the plaintiff's request to restore his nationality, pointing out that there is no specific evidence to prove the accusation made by the Ministry of Justice. The plaintiff, born in 1986, had been living primarily outside of Korea since the age of 16 and acquired US citizenship in July 2022 at the age of 35. He filed for the restoration of his South Korean citizenship in December of that year, which the ministry rejected on grounds that his acquiring of US citizenship is believed to have been designed to avoid mandatary military conscription in South Korea. All able-bodied South Korean men are mandated to serve in the military for at least 18 months, but the Military Service Act in the past had exempted those over 35 of such duties. Those who evaded conscription without justifiable clause, those whose enlistment for noncombat duties had been cancelled, and those who violated the state permit to stay overseas -- such as returning to the country after the permitted period -- are subject to enlistment until age 37. South Korean men have the freedom of travel, but those who are at least 25 years old and have not yet served their mandatory military duty have to receive government permission to travel overseas. This is to prevent draft-dodging via emigration. The Military Service Act allows male citizens to postpone enlistment under justifiable causes, which include educational commitment at tertiary educational institutes or higher and residence outside of the country. The plaintiff in question was permitted by the government to stay outside the country until Dec. 31, 2023. The court pointed out that the plaintiff had been permitted by the state to stay outside the country until Dec. 31, 2023, and that he had been effectively exempted from conscription as of Jan. 1, 2022. This was the year when he turned 36, and Article 2-2 of the Military Service Act states that one is regarded to have become a certain age in Jan. 1 of a given year. By this logic, the court said the plaintiff had already been exempted from the military duties when he became a US citizen. "It would have been possible for the plaintiff to expect that he would not have to shoulder the military duties even without losing his South Korean citizenship. Thus it cannot be considered that applying for US citizenship was a reasonable or unavoidable means for him to avoid the duties," the court said in its ruling. "A vague suspicion itself is not sufficient in such case, and there must be probable cause to strongly suspect draft dodging, such as the purpose of stay in another country, reasons for acquiring the foreign nationality and the situation and time of losing the Korean nationality," the court stated.
Korea Herald
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Court denies dual citizenship application, citing 'birth tourism'
A Seoul court has supported the rejection of an application for dual US-South Korean citizenship because their parent's residence in the US was for the purpose of their child gaining US citizenship. The Seoul Administrative Court said Monday that it had ruled in favor of the Seoul Southern Immigration Office, which rejected the plaintiff's February 2024 application to retain the citizenships of both countries. South Korea's Nationality Act states that a child of a citizen obtains citizenship at birth, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born inside its territories. This means that someone born in the US to parents who are Korean citizens — as in case of the plaintiff — is granted dual citizenships at birth. Dual citizens at birth are usually allowed to retain the nationality of South Korea and another country by pledging to the government not to exercise the rights of foreign citizenship before the age of 22, or within two years of completing their mandatary military service in the case of men. This is to prevent dual citizens from dodging duties mandated for South Koreans, such military service. But the immigration office refused to allow dual citizenship to the plaintiff, saying that the plaintiff's mother is thought to have lived in the US only for the explicit purpose of obtaining US citizenship for her child — sometimes referred to as "birth tourism." The Nationality Act states that in cases where the parent is "deemed to have resided in a foreign country for the purpose of having the person acquire the nationality of the foreign country," the child can retain his or her South Korean citizenship only after renouncing the other nationality. The plaintiff's mother went to the US in 2003 just before giving birth to the plaintiff, staying in the country for a month and a half. She went back to the US in 2011 and lived for four months since then. "There are substantial grounds to believe (that the plaintiff's mother) gave birth in a foreign country, with the intent to have the child gain the citizenship there," the court said in its verdict. The plaintiff denied that the mother's stay in the US was for the purpose of ensuring her child had US citizenship, saying that she lived for four years in the country overall. The Article 17-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Nationality Act does state that a person who lived for two or more years in a country and gave birth there cannot be considered as having conducted birth tourism. But the court said this clause applies to parents who stayed for two consecutive years at the time of the birth of the child. "The Nationality Act of this country had applied strict single nationality principle, and has only allowed dual citizenship on a limited number of cases since 2010. If the court interprets the article (Article 17-3) as the plaintiff claims, we cannot achieve the act's goal of preventing birth tourism," the court went on to say.
Korea Herald
08-02-2025
- Korea Herald
Police disclose identity of Telegram sex crime ring leader
Police on Saturday revealed the identity of the leader of a Telegram-based sex crime ring that exploited more than 234 individuals since 2020. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency disclosed the suspect's name, age and photos on its website Saturday, identifying him as Kim Nok-wan, 33. The information will remain public until March 10. Authorities decided to release Kim's identity during a meeting on Jan. 22. He sought to block the disclosure by filing a request with the Seoul Administrative Court, but the court rejected it. According to investigations, Kim, who called himself "Pastor," formed a group known as "The Vigilantes" in May 2020. He allegedly ran a vast network of encrypted Telegram chat rooms, where he sexually exploited 234 victims -- 159 of whom were teenagers -- over four years until January this year. The number of victims in this case is more than three times that of the notorious "Baksabang" case of 2019-2020, in which Cho Joo-bin blackmailed 73 individuals into making child and adolescent sexual exploitation video clips that he sold online through encrypted Telegram chat rooms. (Yonhap)
