Umpires confer before a Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League match between the Lotte Giants and the LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, April 16. The KBO said Friday that it fired an umpire for attempting to cover up a missed call during a recent game. Yonhap

The Korean baseball league announced Friday it has fired an umpire at the center of a controversial attempt to cover up a missed call during a recent game.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) dismissed umpire Lee Min-ho for the incident during a regular-season game between the NC Dinos and the Samsung Lions on Sunday.

Lee was the crew chief in that game, when home plate umpire Moon Seong-hoon missed a "strike" call from the automated ball-strike system (ABS) on a pitch by Dinos starter Lee Jae-hak.

The Dinos manager Kang In-kwon belatedly argued the call, after seeing the strike call pop up on the league-issued tablet on a few seconds' delay. Lee Min-ho then gathered Moon and third base umpire Chu Pyung-ho, to discuss their action.

During their conference, caught on a mic during the game's broadcast, Lee was heard telling the others: "We should tell people you heard the 'ball' call. Understand? That's the only way we can get out of this."

The KBO got the wind of the situation and removed all three umpires from assignments Monday. Then the league fired Lee, and suspended Moon and Chu for three months without pay.

The KBO implemented the ABS, which uses a tracking device to make calls and relay them to umpires through an ear piece, for the first time this season.

In light of the incident, the KBO said it will begin allowing 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 also plans to equip all 10 clubs with a new device that can relay all ABS calls to the dugout in real time by next Tuesday.

The dismissal of Lee is the most severe form of punishment ever for an umpire in KBO history, dating to 1982. (Yonhap)