SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The military manpower agency will conduct a full review of the active-duty military service exemption system, its chief said Monday, amid controversy over dozens of athletes benefiting due to their wins in the latest Asian Games in Indonesia. Calls have persisted for an overhaul of the decades-old system to [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — There is a high chance that alternative civilian service, a form of national service offered in lieu of formal conscription due to conscientious objection, is set to be fixed at 36 months. Employment at prisons and fire stations is highly likely, where recruits serving their national service will be [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Jo Kwon, a member of K-pop boy band 2AM, bade farewell to his fans Monday as he joined the armed forces for the nearly two years of mandatory military service. The 29-year-old was to enter a military boot camp in Gangwon Province on Monday to start off the military [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans are torn over expanding military service exemptions for athletes, a poll showed Monday. In a survey of 500 adults by Realmeter, 47.6 percent said they were for creating more ways for male athletes to be exempt from conscription. The poll showed that 43.9 percent said they were [...]
SEOUL, May 16 (Korea Bizwire) – Under South Korean constitutional law, able-bodied young men must serve in the military as part of the country’s national defense strategy. On May 16, however, a man was acquitted by Judge Lee Seung-hoon at the Suwon District Court for objecting to military service. The man, who objected to serving in [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Actor Kim Soo-hyun starts his mandatory military duty Monday, his agency has said. Keyeast Co. said Kim, 29, will enter a military training camp in Gyeonggi Province during the day and there will be no event for fans, as the actor didn’t want to make a fuss about starting [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – Two South Korean boy band members will begin their mandatory military service in February, their agencies said Tuesday. Junsu of the K-pop trio JYJ, also known as Kim Jun-su on the musical scene, and T.O.P of BIGBANG will start their two-year service at police departments in February. Both 29 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party said Monday around 3,400 men are giving up their citizenship annually to evade the mandatory military duty, adding the government should take steps to restrict their economic activities in the country. Currently, all able-bodied South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 35 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Military service is no voluntary option for South Korean men. The country, which is still technically at war with its northern neighbor, currently practices conscription, and legislation mandates that all men between 18 and 35 years of age complete a period of military service. As of 2016, those enrolled [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – “I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for death,” said American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem ‘Conscientious Objector’. South Korean law currently mandates that all men between 18 and 25 years of age complete a period of military service. As of 2016, [...]