Tag: mandatory service

It is stressful enough that Korean men have to do mandatory military service, but now they may have to continue to have a travel ban in place just to appease small business owners that profit from the travel ban:

The South Korean military is reconsidering its initial plan to completely lift the travel ban for soldiers following opposition to the move from representatives from military-heavy regions.

According to the ministry, Vice Minister Suh Choo-suk held a meeting on Wednesday with the mayors or county governors from the inter-Korean border areas and agreed to come up with an “improvement scheme” regarding the plan to abolish the restriction on the areas soldiers can visit during their leave.

The ministry plans to announce a revised plan within the year, considering various factors, including military readiness, military personnel’s basic human rights and economic impacts on the border regions.

Last month, the military accepted a proposal from an internal reform committee to lift the restrictions to guarantee soldiers their human rights. However, the governments and small business owners in the border regions have protested the measure, saying it will negatively affect the regional economies.   [KBS Global]

We had an interesting post in the Open Thread about the mandatory service military obligation for dual US-ROK male citizens.  This posting from Ask A Korean highlights what the issue is about:

The unintended consequence of the 2010 law that, all of a sudden, it created a large number of Korean dual citizenship holders who did not even know that they were dual citizens. If you are a draft-eligible age, and you realized only recently that you were in fact a dual citizen, you cannot even renounce your Korean citizenship because of the 2005 law. The result:  we have a messed up situation in which diaspora Koreans, who may have never visited Korea and not speak a lick of Korean, may be draft eligible for Korean military. He can enter Korea freely, but may get stopped at the airport on his way out of Korea, like all other draft-eligible male Korean citizens.  [Ask A Korean]

Someone who is a dual citizen definitely faces the possibility of getting detained at the airport in South Korea because they have not done their mandatory military service.  I had to go deep into the ROK Drop archives to find this, but there have been examples of dual US-ROK citizens being detained at the airport in Korea despite being enlisted in the US military:

The Defense Ministry and the Military Manpower Administration may have to wait for years before they can get their hands on two Koreans who violated the military service law by enlisting in the U.S. Army.

The two Koreans aged 21 and 22 who have U.S. citizenship and residence respectively but retain their Korean nationality volunteered for the U.S. Army without performing their mandatory military service here, the MMA said Friday. Both were supposed to join the Korean armed forces in 2004 but both enlisted with U.S, forces instead. One instead went with them to Germany and both are now ironically with the U.S. Forces Korea as privates first class.  (…)

The first came to Korea on leave last June, and the travel ban stopped him from returning to his unit in Germany. He was indicted here the same month but the indictment was suspended because he serves in the U.S. military. He then transferred to the USFK. The MMA says it will make both of them serve in the Korean forces as well. Article 71 of the Military Service Law says those with dual nationality who violate the law must perform their military duties in Korea before they turn 35.

This dual citizenship issue should definitely be a concern for anyone with male children that may be considered dual citizens.  However, there is a way to renounce ROK citizenship at age 18 to ensure that the male child is not detained at the airport to do their mandatory military service in South Korea.  Here is the information posted on the US Embassy website for the Republic of Korea on this issue:

All malecitizens of the Republic of Korea (ROK), including dual nationals, have military service responsibilities in accordance with the Korean Constitution and the Military Service Law.

If you ever wondered how much a South Korean conscript to include the KATUSA soldiers assigned to US military units make, the answer is not much:

Conscript soldiers’ pay will increase in 2018 to 30 percent of this year’s minimum wage of an annual 1,352,230 won ($1,189.8). This means all draftees will receive 405,669 won, almost double the current 216,000 won. The announcement was made Monday at a regular press briefing by the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, President Moon Jae-in’s de facto power transition team.

Pay will be incrementally increased to 40 percent of the minimum wage by 2020, and reach 50 percent by 2022, equivalent to 540,892 won and 676,115 won, respectively.

The move is part of “fulfilling (Moon’s) national defense plan to increase soldiers’ pay,” committee spokesman Park Kwong-on said. President Moon had vowed better treatment for conscripted soldiers ― all able-bodied Korean men aged between 18 and 35 must serve in the military for up to 21 months.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but diving $1,189 annual salary by 12 months means the ROK conscripts are making roughly $99 a month.  The cost savings from mandatory service is why the ROK military will never become a volunteer only military.

It will be interesting to see if this drug arrest and possible dishonorable discharge from the ROK military will effect his K-Pop career:

T.O.P of K-pop boy band BIGBANG was officially suspended from mandatory military service on Friday after being indicted for smoking marijuana on multiple occasions.

T.O.P, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, is accused of smoking the banned substance four times with a trainee female singer, 21, at his home in Yongsan-gu, Seoul last October.

Choi, who began his military service as a policeman in February, was indicted without detention Monday. He was admitted to Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul the next day suffering from an apparent overdose of benzodiazepine. He became unconscious.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an article that explains a challenge that all male Korean college students have to deal with, when to do your mandatory service:

Mr. Oh, a 24-year-old college student, wanted to serve his mandatory military service sometime between January and March of 2013. Aware that he would have to return to school upon his completion of duty, he wanted to hit the books straight away, making no time for staying idle.

In Korea’s current draft system, Oh needed to be wise about which month he starts and ends his service. In the best-case scenario, he could return to school right after getting discharged from the military. In the worst-case scenario, he would have to wait for an entire semester.

In the end, it didn’t work out for Oh. The competition was high. Way too many men had the same thoughts as him and the lucky-draw didn’t play out to his advantage.

Oh eventually began in June 2013, one of the least-expected – and most unpopular – month of the entire year.

He was discharged in March 2015, after the spring semester began.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of why I have a lot of respect for the Koreans that complete their mandatory military service.

Kim Jae-joong, a member of boy band JYJ, salutes fans and reporters after being discharged from military service on Dec. 30, 2016, at an Army infantry division in Yongin, south of Seoul. Kim served 21 months in compulsory military duty. (Yonhap)

His jail sentence was suspended which means his plan to dodge mandatory service did in fact work:

A man has been given a jail term for having his body covered with tattoos to avoid mandatory military service.

Under the conscription law, men with “excessive” tattoos on their bodies are immune from duty for fear that they could upset other soldiers.

The man, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison with the term suspended for two years, the court in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, revealed Monday. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It seems for people with religious reasons for not wanting to conduct their mandatory service in the military could be used to do something more productive than sitting in a jail cell with other criminals:

Hopes are fading for an alternative to Korea’s mandatory military service after decades of calls from pacifists and religious groups to spare conscientious objectors the martial ordeal.

Some 6,088 young men chose prison rather than mandatory military service over the decade from 2006 to 2015, over 99 percent on religious grounds, according to Defense Ministry data Thursday. That boils down to 600 a year, or just 0.24 percent of all 250,000 annual conscripts.

They are sentenced to a year and a half in jail and must serve the time alongside ordinary criminals.  (……….)

But opponents say that South Korea is uniquely placed because it remains officially at war with North Korea, and there is insufficient public support for an alternative.

In data submitted to the National Assembly early this month, the Defense Ministry said alternative service “can be abused” as a way to evade military service, and there is “not enough consensus” seeing it as anything other than a privilege for followers of “certain religions.”   [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

I did not realize that serving in a research institute was a way to avoid mandatory military service.  This does not seem like a fair alternative to mandatory military service compared to the guys that have to join the ROK military or National Police:

After announcing on Tuesday that military service exemptions for college students of natural sciences and engineering will not extend beyond 2023, the Ministry of National Defense has backpedaled from this decision. Initially, the ministry said that it expects that there will be a shortage of able-bodied Korean men to serve in the military from 2020 and that it will subsequently get rid of the current exemption measure.

The announcement has resulted in an immediate backlash from engineering and natural science students from Kaist, Seoul National University, Postech and other universities as well as from small- and medium-sized companies and agencies that count on the added talent of young men.

But Moon Sang-gyun, spokesman of the Defense Ministry, said in a briefing on Thursday that the plan to get rid of the current exemption measure was one that “has been in under constant review since the early 2000s.”

He added, “The plan is under review in related ministries and agencies, however there has been a misunderstanding that the measure is already confirmed, causing controversy beyond what is needed.”

Under the current exemption measure, individuals who are eligible to be drafted for two-year compulsory military service can instead serve out their term as a conscripted police officer, firefighter, in the coast guard or in another relevant agency, company or research institute. Graduate students in natural sciences or engineering at top schools are in especially high demand at research institutes and small- and medium-sized companies.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

The guy that was jumping around kicking people in the City Hunter drama is some how unfit for military service:

Actor Lee Min-ho has been exempted from active military service required of all able-bodied South Korean men because of his medical history, his talent agency said Thursday.

The 28-year-old will instead work in the public service for about two years, MYM Entertainment said, adding it has not been decided when he will start the service.

The decision was made because he has screws in a leg he broke in a car accident in 2009.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I always have a lot of respect for the actors and other celebrities that complete their mandatory military service.