By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition team will review ways to revive an incentive scheme for men who have fulfilled their mandatory military service, a member of the team said.
The move is expected to reignite controversy over the issue.
In 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled against the scheme to give additional points to discharged soldiers when they take state-run exams to become public officials, upholding a petition from an association of women's groups.
The court said the measure is ``too excessive'' and breaches the equal rights status of women and the disabled who are not obliged to serve in the military.
``Both supporters and opponents shared the need to compensate men who spent a valuable part of their life for national defense, but differ over how to do it,'' Professor Hong Doo-seung of Seoul National University said during a meeting with sailors of the Navy's 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Hong is a member of the transition sub-committee on foreign, defense and unification affairs.
``We'll review the survival of the incentive scheme as part of the incoming government's defense policies,'' he said, adding a measure to compensate the discharged soldiers financially would be most feasible.
For most South Korean young men, the country's two-year-long compulsory military service is an unavoidable source of disruption as they must suspend their studies in college or quit jobs at the peak of their youth.
All able-bodied men over 19 are required to serve in the military for 24-27 months. Women can serve in the military as non-commissioned officers or officers but are not obligated to under the conscription system.
Last year, Rep. Ko Jeou-heung of the main opposition Grand National Party submitted a bill to revive an incentive scheme for discharged soldiers.
Under Ko's bill, passed by a National Assembly subcommittee on June 22, those who served in the military are able to receive up to two additional percentage points to their scores in exams to become public servants or work at public firms.
For example, if a man who served in active duty receives 50 points in an exam, he can get an additional one point.
The lawmaker stressed the new system would not be in violation of equal rights since the advantages under the bill have been eased to a greater extent not to harm the rights of women and the disabled.
Before the court's ruling, all men who served in active military duty could get an additional three to five percentage points unconditionally, on top of their original scores. For instance, a man who got 80 points could receive five additional points.
Though they failed in an exam, they could keep taking other exams with the fixed additional points. Men who served in substitute duties such as civil support work and retired female officers did not benefit from this system.
Ko's bill, however, is applicable to both on a graded point basis.
In addition, only 20 percent of applicants in an exam would be allowed the additional points, and the advantage would be limited after a certain test period, the lawmaker said.