By Jun Ji-hye
The government has decided to abolish a system in which conscripted soldiers are assigned to serve at commanders’ official residences in an effort to address concerns about human rights violations involving such staff, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Thursday.
The decision came after a public uproar over allegations that Gen. Park Chan-ju, the former commander of the Army’s 2nd Operations Command, and his wife had long exploited soldiers assigned to serve at his official residence, treating them like slaves.
“We will remove the potential cause of the problems by abolishing the assignment of soldiers to duties of taking care of the official residences of commanders,” Lee said.
The government will reassign 122 soldiers serving at commanders’ official residences to combat units by October, he added.
Park and his wife were accused of not only forcing soldiers to do the laundry, ironing, gardening and cleaning, but also ordering them to draw the blinds in the bedroom, or pick up trash such as toenails and dead skin cells from the sofa and living room floor.
Military prosecutors are currently looking into the case.
After it was made public in early August, the government inspected 45 government agencies to check whether unreasonable practices occur there.
Lee said the government will also abolish the practice in which high-ranking police officers use conscripts as their drivers.