South Korean Man Found Guilty of Trying to Dodge Military Service by Deliberately Gaining Weight: Reports

A man in South Korea has been found guilty of deliberately gaining weight to avoid the country’s mandatory military service, according to reports.

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced the man to one year in prison, suspended for two years, after he was accused of gaining more than 44 pounds so he could be exempt from the tougher military duties, the Associated Press reported.

He received the suspended sentencing for “violating the Military Service Act,” per the Korea Herald. All able-bodied men are required to serve in the military in South Korea for at least 18 months, according to the outlet, which added that the man in question was 26.

CNN reported men fit enough to serve time in the army usually have to do so before they are 28 years old.

Under the act, anyone accused of trying to “evade their mandatory military service without justifiable cause can be punished by up to three years in prison,” the Korea Herald stated.

A court official told NBC News that the man in question, who hasn’t been named, “deliberately tried to gain so much weight it would make him ineligible for combat duty.”

Per CNN, citing the Wednesday, Nov. 13 ruling, the man was classified as obese after weighing in at 225 pounds, and was ruled out of active duty in June 2023. Six years prior, he’d been assessed as fit to serve in a combat role following an initial physical exam, the outlet reported.

The AP reported the man weighed 183 pounds when he took the initial exam in 2017. He then quit his part-time job as a delivery worker and “doubled his daily food consumption,” the news agency stated, citing the court’s public affairs office.

His weight gain meant he’d be allowed to serve in a non-combat role at a government agency and commute from home, per the Korea Herald.

“The defendant consumed high-calorie foods, approximately doubled his meal portions, refrained from physically demanding jobs such as parcel delivery work, and drank large amounts of water right before measurements to deliberately increase his weight,” the judge said in the ruling, according to CNN.

The outlet reported the man has since “expressed his intention to fulfill his military duty sincerely.”

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According to the Korea Herald, a friend of the man has been accused of providing a plan to try to help him gain weight. The acquaintance was sentenced to six months in prison for aiding and abetting. His sentence was suspended for two years, according to the publication, and he reportedly denied the accusation by claiming he didn’t think his friend would go through with the plan.

The outlet said the court had decided on a “relatively lenient punishment” due to the pair having no previous criminal convictions, adding that the defendant had “acknowledged his wrongdoing.”

It’s not clear if the man accused of violating the Military Service Act had begun serving his military duty before he was tried in court, the AP reported. The news agency said that both the defendants and prosecutors hadn’t appealed the Nov. 13 ruling.

The Supreme Court of Korea didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.