Is President Lee’s “Smart Enlistment” the First Step Towards a Professional ROK Military?
This is basically the first step to creating a professional military. Few people are going to agree to be a conscript for 4-5 years no matter how good the job is. This is why the pay is going to have to be significantly higher compared to a conscript to get them to agree to that contract. This essentially means you now have a professional soldier and not a conscript:
President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday stressed the need for Korea to adopt a selective enlistment system to transform the country’s armed forces into a “smart, elite and powerful military” centered on advanced equipment and technology.
The president reaffirmed his long-standing commitment to the revised system, which was one of his election campaign pledges. The proposed system would let individuals choose between serving as active-duty conscripts for 18-21 months or as technology-intensive noncommissioned officers for four or five years — a longer commitment than rank-and-file conscription, offset by incentives such as higher salaries meant to attract volunteers.
You can read more at the link.
