By You Soo-sun
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.
Park continued that this was also part plans to “modernize” and “strengthen” the Korean military. He said this is in line with the government’s goal of increasing the number of commissioned and non-commissioned officers while lowering that of conscripts.
Lee Su-hoon, chief of the committee's subpanel on security, said the plan will cost around 800 billion won in 2018 and 5 trillion won over the next five years. He noted that this was “an acceptable level considering the importance of national defense.”