Should Rain Re-enlist? No, Says The Military.

Recent scandals about celebrity recruits had immediate results. Eight celebrity recruits were punished with confinement for not following regulations and reassigned to active duty.

While all males in Korea, ages 18 to 35 must serve in the military for two years, until recently celebrities were allowed to work in the public relations department and had schedules flexible enough to accommodate some performances. As a result of the scandals, the celebrity recruit status for kpop and kdrama stars was ended and in future all enlistees will have to serve some form of active duty.

However, some felt that singer Rain, who starred in the drama "Full House," has escaped punishment.

One of the recent scandals that ended celebrity recruit status involved Rain, singers Se7en and Mighty Mouth's Sangchu. Rain was seen dining with the other singers while they were on military duty but he did not later accompany them to an adult massage parlor, behavior for which they were punished.

He left military duty on July 10, cleared of all charges.

After he left, Korean politician Kim Gwang Jin pointed out that Rain served in the public relations department of the Defense Media Agency without doing all of the required paperwork. Some said that the proper thing to do would be to make Rain re-enlist and serve his military duty again.

However, a military spokesman said that while the paperwork was not adequate, Rain's conduct could not be considered a violation of military law.

"It does not qualify as behavior prompting his serving military duty again," said the spokesman. "The papers Rain neglected to submit are confirmation documents and a letter of recommendation."

The publicity department says these documents are not vital.

"Rain already served his time and was already punished for his mistakes," said the spokesman. "Serving duty again would require a major violation. He can be criticized for failing to submit papers in this process but claiming that he serves duty again is not appropriate."

The evening spent with Se7en and Sangchu was not the first scandal that Rain was involved in during his military service. After photographs emerged that showed Rain on a date with actress girlfriend Kim Tae Hee when he was supposed to be on active duty, members of the public questioned the amount of time he took off. The Ministry of Defense gave Rain one week of probation during which he was confined to his barracks.