Players line up before the opening game of the Korean baseball league at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, March 23. Yonhap

The South Korean baseball league announced Monday it has pulled three umpires from assignments after they were caught on a hot mic trying to cover up a missed call during a game Sunday.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said umpires Lee Min-ho, Moon Seong-hoon and Chu Pyung-ho will be excluded from regular-season work for the time being while the league mulls further disciplinary action.

The incident in question took place Sunday during the bottom of the third inning of a game between the NC Dinos and the Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, some 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Dinos starter Lee Jae-hak threw a pitch over the outer part of the plate. Moon, home plate umpire, ruled it a ball, even though the newly implemented automated ball-strike system (ABS) had called it a strike.

The ABS uses a tracking system to make calls and delivers the info to the home plate umpire through an ear piece.

The KBO later confirmed that the pitch had been identified as a strike on the ABS. Dinos manager Kang In-kwon also saw the pitch as a strike on the tablet provided to each club this season to track ABS calls.

Kang came out of the dugout to argue with Moon, but only after Lee Jae-hak had thrown three more pitches because the pitch appeared on the tablet screen after several seconds of delay. Kang's appeal was rejected based on the rules that the appeal should have been made immediately after the pitch in question.

Lee Min-ho, the crew chief for the game, announced the decision through the stadium PA system, but it was his conversation with Moon and Chu, the third base umpire, that caused controversy after it was caught on a mic during the game's broadcast.

Instead of asking Moon to admit his mistake, Lee urged the home plate umpire to try to cover up the missed call.

"We should tell people you heard the 'ball' call. Understand? That's the only way we can get out of this," Lee was heard telling Moon.

Moon said, "Yes," and Lee went on.

"So just make sure to say what you heard was 'ball.' If you don't want us to get hammered for this, you have to listen to me," Lee insisted.

The clip quickly went viral on social media and was the lead story on major evening news programs.

"We consider this to be an extremely serious matter," the KBO said in a statement Monday. "We will take stern disciplinary steps as necessary."

In light of this incident, the KBO said its commissioner, Heo Koo-youn, held an emergency meeting to review the operational manual on the ABS.

The KBO said it will allow an ABS official working on the scene to intervene should any confusion arise during transmission of a call to the home plate umpire's ear piece.

The KBO added it will equip all 10 clubs with a new device that relays all ABS calls to the dugout in real time. (Yonhap)