Young Jay. [CJ ENM]
Young Jay. [CJ ENM]

Young Jay (34, real name Seong Young-jae), leader of the winning crew on the talent show "Street Man Fighter," had his acquittal overturned on appeal Thursday and was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of evading mandatory military service by falsely claiming he suffered from panic disorder and could not manage daily life.

The first criminal appeals division of Seoul Southern District Court, presided over by Judge Kim Sun-yeol, vacated the lower court's not-guilty ruling and handed down the one-year prison term. The panel declined to detain Young Jay in the courtroom, finding no risk of flight.

According to prosecutors, Young Jay visited the psychiatry department of a university hospital between July 2020 and February 2021 and deceived medical staff into believing his panic symptoms left him unable to function in daily life, obtaining a military-service medical certificate under false pretenses. In March 2021, he submitted the certificate to the Seoul Regional Military Manpower Administration and was classified as Grade 4 — social service duty — on grounds of neurotic disorder.

A prosecutorial investigation found, however, that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Young Jay had continued working steadily and earning income, while falsely telling doctors he had stopped all economic activity due to mental illness.

The medical certificate stated that he required continuous treatment for more than a year, yet he abruptly stopped treatment immediately after receiving the Grade 4 classification and resumed his public career, appearing on television programs.

The lower court had acquitted him, ruling that the evidence alone was insufficient to conclude he had feigned mental illness to obtain a draft exemption and that prosecutors had not adequately proved he used deception for the purpose of evading military service.

Prosecutors appealed, arguing the lower court had misread the facts and misapplied the law, and sought a two-year prison sentence.

The appeals court agreed, ruling that prosecutors' argument about errors of fact and law had merit. After reviewing the evidentiary record, the panel said it was fully satisfied that Young Jay had used deception to avoid or reduce his military obligations despite being in a condition that did not warrant an exemption.

The court added that he had exploited psychiatric consultations — which by their nature require medical judgment — to evade service while his duty was already deferred, calling his conduct and methods "extremely poor."

The panel said the duty to national defense is a fundamental and indispensable constitutional obligation that must be fulfilled in good faith, and that draft evasion inflicts a sense of loss on those who serve faithfully while shaking the foundation and credibility of the military service system, with serious consequences for South Korea.

Young Jay is the leader of dance crew Just Jerk, who first gained recognition in 2016 when the group became the first Korean team to win the international dance competition Body Rock. In 2022, he led Just Jerk to the overall championship on Mnet's "Street Man Fighter."

He married a partner 13 years his junior — born in 2005 — in February, but the union drew controversy after it emerged that the two had begun dating while she was still a minor.

Young Jay said he began the relationship only after she turned 18, adding that he had sought her parents' approval before they started dating, taking the age gap into account.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com