By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
All South Korean enlisted soldiers will be able to sleep on individual beds in their barracks by 2012, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.
The plan is part of the ministry's mid- and long-term polices to improve the welfare of servicemembers, it said in a news release. President Lee Myung-bak approved a package of plans for soldiers' welfare last week, it added.
Under the plan, the military will complete providing a total of 1,084 military residences nationwide with individual beds over the next three years to ``meet social trends.'' Currently, most soldiers in the field still sleep on heated floors in their barracks.
Critics argue space on sleeping floors is scant for soldiers used to beds before enlistment and even infringes on their basic human rights because it generates unnecessary physical contact.
The ministry originally planned to complete the barracks modernization project by 2015 when the plan was initiated in 2005.
The current 2.6 square meters of barracks space per soldier will be expanded to 6.6 square meters under the plan, according to the ministry.
The ministry also plans to modernize aging barracks for commissioned or non-commissioned military officers within the same timeframe.
To help resolve difficulties regarding the education of military families, the government will have almost all colleges and universities around the nation adopt a special admission system for them. Currently, only 81 colleges and universities have the system in place.
By 2016, the ministry will build about 88 welfare facilities that can be used by both military family members and local residents.
The military will also increase its division-level medical units to 55 by 2012 to help provide quality medical services to men and women in uniform.
South Korea operates a 655,000-strong force. All able-bodied men must serve in the military or perform equivalent civilian service for at least two years, as their country is technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.