In this undated photo, provided by the Army on Feb. 5, 2021, a service member uses a metal detector to find land mines in a practice education.
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Active-duty soldiers in charge of mine disposal are suffering from exceptionally low wages, which aren’t even being paid properly.
“There are service members in charge of mine disposal here,” a service member working at an Army base in Incheon, just west of Seoul, said on a Facebook page that serves as an anonymous bulletin board for troops.
“They’ve carried out three mine disposal missions since last year, but they’ve never received the incentive pay for hazardous duties.”
The hazardous duty incentive pay is given to soldiers deployed on mine disposal missions, which falls short of 4,000 won (US$2.99) per day.
The Army base in question has been carrying out mine disposal missions in areas with a high risk of lost mines.
According to military sources, a few soldiers have not been paid the incentives properly due to negligence by those in charge, vowing to pay the incentives in due time.
There have so far been 71 officers and soldiers who have yet to receive the hazardous incentives from the base.
Mine accidents frequently occur in the estuary of the Han River where wooden-box land mines often wash out from North Korea, as well as M14 antipersonnel mines swept away by heavy rain from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
