Korean Job Discussion Forums

noraebang · Joined: 05 May 2010

To be a little emotionally loaded, Why do Koreans support the mass slavery of all of their young men at the most important time in their educations and careers?

I don't actually know the reason. Because when I ask young men about this (I was a college student in Korea) they say that everyone hates it and everyone is against it. It wastes their life, it's time they can never get back, etc.

So I say, "Okay, why not vote against it?"

And they tell me that would be impossible, that it would never gain support. So who is voting for this, their girlfriends? Haha.

Nobody in their right mind could actually believe the reason is for national security. Is this the best plan Korean tacticians can come up with: throw a massive wall of human bodies at the enemy? If this actually worked, then why is the US infinitely more powerful with less people in the military?

It is a waste of their time and money to train my 130lb Starcraft expert friends for two years, when they could train pilots, build ships (their navy is pathetic), and train good soldiers. Money, time, and training is just being wasted on these people. If you want good soldiers, you should try and make career soldiers. Not a pile of "okay" soldiers, with weapons from the 60s and 70s (saw this on coverage of the Cheonan, lol).

I don't know if Koreans would go for the moral argument that ended conscription in the West--that our lives are our own, that we have the right to liberty and are not slaves to the state's military objectives. I mean, does the government have the right to break up someone's love life or education like that? But they must kind of feel that practically what they're doing is a bad plan too. I mean everybody is so concerned about the economy, yet they're taking engineers and bright people out of work and school during the period in their lives that they work the hardest. I bet the economic cost of taking every bright young man and conscripting him for over two years is enormous--I'd like to see a study on it. It would be hard to quantify though, wouldn't it? What if those two or three years would have added up to him creating something great or unique in his business that he never will now?

Having an advanced industrial economy is actually important for having a good military, so I don't think economic improvement is just a side benefit. The US is another good example of that. Today it is technology that makes wars, not throwing waves of human bodies at the enemy. God that's wasteful.

conrad2 · Joined: 05 Nov 2009

Young engineers and scientists are exempt from being drafted in Korea.

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

Ah, how do you expect to defend against a million man army just up the road if you don't have conscription? NK is still a threat, even though they'd never attack. But if SK didn't have an army, then NK just might change their tune. If it were voluntary, you'd be lucky to get 50,000 soldiers.

And Koreans don't really support it, but realize that it's necessary as long as NK is around.

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

conrad2 · Joined: 05 Nov 2009

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

noraebang · Joined: 05 May 2010

noraebang · Joined: 05 May 2010

noraebang · Joined: 05 May 2010

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

Seoulio · Joined: 02 Jan 2010

Its the similar mentality that Americans have when suporting an (unjust) war.
You saw it with Vietnam and again with the GUlf War Par Deux.

If you are not for the war or the soldiers then you are un-patriotic, you are un-American.

Even when people actually opposed the war you couldnt speak out against it, and the sole fact that you were in one was basically got George Bush another term, so yet again another thing that shows alck of common sense on the issue.

Alos keep in mind, the average KOrean likely does think its a waste of time and that the men should not have to do it, but actuall making that a ploicy is not going to happen because "what if" they do it and then NOrth KOrea attacks???

BringTheRain · Joined: 26 Apr 2010

Most of the wealthier students I teach figured out a way to either get out of the service with some dubious medical claim or get a simple office job where they could go home at night.

Conscription seems to be a necessity here, to be prepared for a conflict on land...

kimchi_pizza · Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 4:03 pm Post subject:

The U.S. should adopt the same policy with all those maniacal Canadians just north of us.

Actually, I was kind of honest. American male youth could use the discipline, structure and maturity. Something lacking in more and more house-holds.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Has anyone any information about Concientcious Objection in Korea?
I've never heard a Korean say that it occurs here.

Any info appreciated.