By Lee Tae-hoon
The government has decided to continue to allow some draftees to serve in non-military duties through 2015 due to a surplus of military manpower, defense ministry officials said Monday.
The Ministry of National Defense initially planned to abolish the “alternative service” system from 2012.
The officials say the government will extend the substitute military program as the military is experiencing a surplus of conscripts after scrapping its initial plan to curtail the mandatory duty to 18 months by 2014.
Late last year, the government put a halt to the reduction of the term at 21 months.
Of some 300,000 able-bodied young men enlisted each year, 20,426 will be able to do the alternative service, according to defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.
The National Police Agency and Korea Coast Guard will recruit 14,806 and 1,300 conscripts each year, respectively.
Fire departments and private companies, which either promote the government’s policy of nurturing outstanding talents or suffer from difficulties in recruiting young, skilled workers, will employ 320 and 4,000 conscripts annually.
Conscripts doing the alternative services, except those at private firms, will receive the same wage as draftees on active duty, which is slightly less than 100,000 won ($89) a month on average.
The defense ministry, which plans to cut its 650,000-strong military to 500,000 by 2020, will make a decision on whether to further extend alternative military service in 2014.