Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

South Korea rethinks "alternative" to conscription
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE4BN0D820081224

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's military indicated on Wednesday it would hold off on a plan for alternative service for conscientious objectors to the armed forces who are now jailed if they refuse conscription.

Military service of about two years is mandatory for all able-bodied South Korean men in order to field a fighting force strong enough to prevent North Korea's 1.2 million-strong army from attacking. The United States stations about 28,000 troops in the South to support its military.

South Korea' Defense Ministry released a survey on Wednesday saying that nearly 70 percent of the public was opposed to allowing alternative service. It has said the poll results would weigh heavily on its policy decision.

"We can understand it is still too early to allow alternative forms of military service for conscientious objectors," spokesman Won Tae-jae told a news briefing. The ministry had not yet made a final decision, he added.

The Defense Ministry has floated the idea over the past few years of allowing conscientious objectors to perform community service or a non-combat military related jobs.

But conservative and veterans groups have objected, saying it would encourage draft dodging and weaken the country's ability to deter North Korea, which on Tuesday repeated a threat to reduce the South to ashes.

About 300,000 men are conscripted each year into the South's military or riot police. But around 750 men annually refuse to join on moral grounds, often because they are pacifists.

They typically receive prison sentences of about two years. Criminal records make it difficult for objectors to find good jobs and the issue of army service is often raised by potential employers during job interviews.

Service starts at the age of 19, although recruits can defer for a few years depending on their family situation or study plans. For almost all young men, military service interrupts their studies at university or the start of their careers.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Kim Junghyun; Editing by Nick Macfie)

[crossmr]

My friend hasn't had to do army service. Sort of.
There is some deal worked out because he has a graduate degree and the company he is working for. They want him to go to the US to get a PhD in Aerospace Engineering.

Apparently if he works for this company for 3 years he is free and clear. The only thing he has to do is 1 month of basic training which he's almost finished.

[jvalmer]

[crossmr]

[jvalmer]

[Bramble]

[crossmr]

[Bramble]

[Gimpokid]

There's a guy who works at my school who is really fat and I've been told that he has been allowed to help out at the school in leau of military service...I guess that's one way to get out of it.

[esetters21]

[ED209]

[theholyinnocent]

One of my co-workers, who was quite young (20, western age), tried to tell me about some way to get out of military service. I couldn't understand very well because his English was really bad but he basically said something like, if they achieve a lot in some international context (like, he wanted to get into a famous NYC dance company, but he also used "the Yankees" as an example) then they are considered a "winner" and they don't have to go to the military. It was hard for me to understand if he was just talking about deferring service, or actually becoming exempt from it -- because I thought you could defer service for a variety of reasons, not just if you were somehow bringing international pride to Korea. But he really seemed to think that getting into this dance company was his plan to get out of military service.

He didn't seem to have any ideological objection to guns. I think he just really didn't want to have to do it. He was really small and delicate, and he studied modern dance, so I think he was just like, "wtf, no."

Interestingly, another young co-worker once basically got the shit beat out of him by our boss, like hair-pulling and everything (yeah), and when they were explaining to me why we were suddenly having a brawl (since it all went down in Korean) they were like, "He is too young and has not been in the military yet. So he does not know how to be quiet and take orders." He was the only one there, at that point, who had not done military service, and they all brought that fact up when they were talking about him, even though it was just because he was young, not because he had tried to get out of it. I imagine it would be really hard to be a man in Korea who had actively and deliberately avoided military service. I mean just because of the fact that you wouldn't have that common bond, and other guys might alternately be offended by your refusal to forge it, or resent you for not having to go through what they went through. Kind of like a hazing thing; I can see how you would feel kind of "outside" the group.

[Smee]

Well, I don't think going into the military is "manning up." A man who decides it's not right to murder another isn't less of one.

Related to the last post, Korea will exempt athletes from time to time. They did it for the WBC baseball team. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2371821

[jvalmer]

[Mr. Pink]