"Senior Makes Freshman Do 1,200 Push-Ups"… Controversy Over 'Discipline Enforcement' at Korea Maritime and Ocean University

Korea Maritime and Ocean University.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] Allegations have been raised that senior cadets excessively enforced military discipline by making juniors do hundreds of push-ups at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University’s Merchant Marine College freshmen dormitory.

On the 12th, according to students of Korea Maritime and Ocean University, an inspection of personnel and hygiene cleaning took place the previous afternoon at the Boarding Life Education Center, the freshmen dormitory.

At this education center, about 200 freshmen of the Merchant Marine College are divided into several groups to receive boarding life education while living in the dormitory.

During the hygiene inspection, senior students in their fourth year, who are honorary cadets, pointed out various issues and ordered juniors to perform push-up punishment drills.

The juniors who were criticized had to do around 300 push-ups, and it was reported that the number kept increasing because the punishment was not properly carried out.

Photo by Online Community Capture.

The number of push-ups rapidly increased from 300 to 600, 800, and eventually an order was given to do 1,200 push-ups.

Students reported that when the person being criticized could not complete all the push-ups, their peers shared the burden, each doing about 80 push-ups.

The incident has been rapidly spreading online.

One student claimed, "There was punishment because the faucet direction was not properly aligned," and added, "(A senior) said, ‘I have done 10,000 push-ups over 14 hours. You can do it too. You have gained something valuable, so remember this day well.’"

Photo by Online Community Capture.

Another student said, "There are students on the 2nd to 6th floors of the dormitory, and when the sound of punishment was heard from other floors, the honorary cadet asked, ‘Do you want to do push-up planks too?’ When the students said no, he said they lacked camaraderie and made them do 100 push-ups."

The school stated that it is investigating the facts.

A school official said, "We are calling in fourth-year and first-year students alternately for interviews and investigations," and added, "Recently, even a single word can be considered verbal abuse, so we are carefully reviewing whether there was any excessive behavior in the process of educating juniors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.