SEOUL: South Korea's Premiership striker Lee Dong-Gook and goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae were banned from South Korea's national team for a year yesterday for an early-hours booze-and-girls session during the Asian Cup.

Defender Kim Sang-Sik and forward Woo Sung-Yong were also hit with year bans by the Korean Football Association (KFA) in what officials described as the harshest punishment in years.

Goalkeeper Lee, captain at the time and an Asian Player of the Year nominee, was handed 80 hours' community service and a three-year suspension from KFA matches for leading the drinking spree.

Lee Gap-Jin, head of the KFA disciplinary committee, told reporters Lee deserved "heavy punishment" for taking his team-mates to a karaoke bar where they drank late into the night with female staff.

National players "must be punished for leaving their quarters for drinking in the middle of important international matches," he said.

But officials denied reports the four visited a brothel.

"Our probe found that they never visited a brothel," one official said.

Kim, Woo and Lee Dong-Gook, who plays for Middlesbrough, received 40 hours of community service and a two-year ban from KFA matches, including the FA Cup and home international friendlies.

All four had been under fire over the night out at an Indonesian karaoke bar on July 16 after the 2-1 Asian Cup group-stage loss to Bahrain.

Lee Woon-Jae, 34, had also defied rules by leaving the team base to visit a bar with friends three nights earlier.

The goalie, whose crucial penalty shootout save led South Korea into the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup, burst into tears as he and others offered an emotional plea for forgiveness on Tuesday.

South Korea finished third in the tournament but scored just three goals in six matches. Coach Pim Verbeek later resigned.