The reason why Steven Yoo (유승준) isn't allowed back in Korea and will never be

There seems to be considerable confusion in this subreddit lately about why the former Korean singer Steve Yoo (유승준; Yoo Seung Joon) isn't allowed back in.

A lot of people seem to not realize that Steve Yoo committed fraud against the Korean government on live television.

Yoo already got a 3 month delay for his military service (a privilege), and when he went to Japan & the U.S. to play at concerts, he signed an agreement based on the 귀국보증제도 (Homecoming/Return Home Guarantee System), where Yoo promised the South Korean government he would return right after the concerts to serve in the military in a legally binding contract.

You don't get to defraud the entire government and expect to get away unscathed, ESPECIALLY when you humiliate the government on live television in front of millions of citizens. Steve Yoo basically teabagged the government in front of the whole world. And this wasn't a simple debt or payment issue like most fraud. It was about a legal obligation that every male in Korea has to undertake.

If the South Korean government did nothing to make an example out of Yoo, they would be establishing a dangerous precedent where Korean citizens, foreign companies, and even diplomats of other countries have no reason to take contracts with the Korean government seriously.

After all, Steve Yoo defrauded the Korean government, practically bragged about it on live television, and simply got away with it; why shouldn't they?

When previous celebrities dodged military service, they did it quietly and didn't sign a legally binding agreement with the government. They stayed abroad for overseas education/business deals and eased into foreign citizenship; they weren't stupid about to show it off on live television multiple times like Steve Yoo did.

This is the reason why in a rare moment of unity, both liberal and conservative politicians in Korea unanimously pushed to punish Steve Yoo.

When you can get both the liberal and conservative parties to hate you, you know you screwed up.