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| Rep. Park Yong-jin of the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea announces his plan to make military service mandatory for both men and women during a press briefing at the National Assembly in Seoul, July 16. Yonhap |
By Yoon Ja-young
Some presidential candidates, from both the liberal ruling and conservative opposition parties, are saying that they will introduce mandatory military service for women.
Rep. Park Yong-jin, one of the presidential hopefuls of the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea, announced July 16, that he will make both men and women perform up to 100 days of compulsory basic military training if he is elected president. After the training period, they will undergo exercises as armed reserves for a certain period of time. He said that he will establish a committee in the first year of his presidential term to introduce this compulsory military service.
In this way, "the compulsory military service, which is causing social conflict, will be contributing to a strong defense and social integration," the lawmaker said.
His move follows that of Rep. Ha Tae-keung, a presidential hopeful of the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP).
Ha pledged the day before Park's announcement that he would make both men and women fulfill mandatory military service for one year. On top of the one-year mandatory service, he also vowed to strengthen voluntary recruitment.
He wrote on Facebook that "genuine gender equality will be achieved only when women are given equal opportunities to participate in domestic defense."
"The one-year mandatory service by both men and women, combined with both conscription and voluntary recruitment, will enable maintaining 500,000 in the forces, even if the military service is shortened to one year," the lawmaker said.
He added that it is an old 20th-century idea as well as prejudice to say that defensive power would be impaired if women joined the military. "In a 21st-century military, which is focused on science and technology, physical strength and condition don't have as much influence," he said.
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| Rep. Ha Tae-keung, a presidential hopeful of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, explains his pledge regarding conscription, in which both men and women would serve for one year in the military, July 15. Yonhap |
Women are currently exempt from the 18 to 22 months' compulsory military service that is required to be fulfilled by all able-bodied men with Korean nationality. Women of Korean nationality can volunteer as commissioned or noncommissioned officers if they wish.
There have been suggestions that women should also perform military service, amid concerns that the country will lack a conscription pool due to the plummeting birthrate. There have also been complaints among young men that it isn't fair that only they should "sacrifice their time" without getting "rewards." They only receive less than $500 a month during their service. Those who have completed military service were given extra points when applying for civil service positions in the past, but that system was abolished following a court decision that it was unconstitutional.
Compulsory military service is one reason why some young Korean men think they are being discriminated against. In a joint survey by the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, and Hankook Research on 3,000 adults conducted in May, 78.9 percent of men in their 20s and 70 percent of men in their 30s said that they believe discrimination against men is serious in Korea. Men in their 20s are turning their backs on the ruling party, with exit polls showing that 72.5 percent of them cast their ballots for the PPP candidate during the April 7 by-election for Seoul mayor.
