Steve Yoo says entering Korea 'no longer meaningful' as he abandons two-decade fight

Singer Steve Yoo, known in Korea as Yoo Seung-jun, has spoken out about the entry ban and military service controversy that has followed him for more than two decades.

A video titled "I've done enough. I'm going to stop now" was posted Wednesday on his YouTube channel.

"Korea is the place where I was born and the home of my heart — a country like a mother to me," he said in the video. "Living abroad actually makes you miss Korea even more."

He then explained his background, saying he was not someone who went to the United States to settle down but an immigrant who moved there with his family in 1989 at the age of 13. "I came to America following my father, and adapting to a new environment was not easy," he said.

He also recalled that the first tattoo he got before his debut as a singer read "Korean Pride." "That shows how much pride and affection I had for Korea," he said.

"The reason I wanted to succeed in Korea was because my roots are there," he added. "No matter how accustomed I became to American culture, my sensibilities aligned most with Korea."

Yoo said he has now resigned himself to the situation. "At this point, entering Korea no longer holds much meaning for me," he said. "I have talked about lies and truth, explained my circumstances and everything — and yet it seems my sincerity and true feelings are still not getting through."

He also expressed frustration over how he is perceived. "Even when I appeared on broadcasts and poured out everything in my heart, there were still people who believed I was someone who badmouthed others once the cameras were off," he said.

Yoo said he had laid out his side of the story and explained why he made the decisions he did, but what followed was "nothing but rumors." "None of what I said was conveyed or reflected at all. I thought that was the media's fault," he said.

He also pushed back against speculation that he was seeking to re-enter Korea to evade taxes. "That has nothing to do with it. I pay double taxation," he said.

"All that comes up is that I badmouthed people after broadcasts, that there was corruption and favoritism around my military service — but never why I made the decision I did," Yoo said. "I even explained the very beginning, how I first came to say I would enlist, and nobody seemed interested in that. So now I'm fine with it."

Yoo debuted in 1997 and rose to fame with hits including "Na Na Na" and "Gawi." But on the eve of his mandatory military service in 2002, he obtained US citizenship, triggering a draft-dodging controversy that led to a permanent entry ban.

He applied for an overseas Korean visa (F-4) in 2015 but was rejected, and has since pursued a series of lawsuits to overturn the denial. He is currently awaiting an appeals court ruling in his third administrative lawsuit.

“주식하다 망했다” 박정수 투자 실패…“삼전 8만원에 샀다 500만원 남겨”

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