Independent lawmaker resigns over false rumors about Seoul mayor's son
Independent lawmaker Kang Yong-seok on Wednesday offered to resign from his parliamentary seat to take responsibility for raising groundless draft-dodging rumors about Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon's son.

Kang, who was expelled from the ruling party last year after making inappropriate sexual remarks at a gathering with university students, raised allegations last month about the mayor's son, Park Ju-sin. Kang claimed the younger Park fabricated his medical records to evade mandatory military service, and vowed to leave parliament if his claim turned out to be false.

Kang's resignation offer came shortly after a Seoul general hospital contradicted his claims against Park's son after a medical test.

The 27-year-old Park Ju-sin joined the Air Force last August, but was sent home four days later as he suffered pain in his thighs. A second checkup by the Military Manpower Administration(MMA) in December found him unfit for active duty due to discs in his spine, and he has been waiting to perform an alternative service at a public organization.

For the re-examination, Park's son submitted the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) film he had taken at a local hospital to the MMA, which had been cross-checked with his computerized tomography (CT) scan he took at the agency.

All able-bodied South Korean men between 18 and 38 must serve about two years in the armed forces, depending on their branch of service, since the South remains technically at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. 

In January, Kang posted several photos of the junior Park on his blog showing him bending his back and jumping, hardly seen as a herniated disc patient.

Last week, he then released an MRI scan film, claiming it to be the junior Park's, which sparked widespread draft-dodging suspicions, as neurosurgeon Han Seok-joo of the Severance Hospital suggested the film "is someone else's data concerning the young Park's build," and urged the country's audit agency to investigate the scandal.

Dismissing all the suspicions, Mayor Park on Wednesday had his son visit Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul and undergo an MRI, which turned out to be identical to the record presented to the MMA. (Yonhap News)