Youth in competition to join army

New recruits salute at the Korea Army Training Center in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, on Feb. 6. Competition for joining the military has become fierce as the number of applicants surged amid the prolonged economic slowdown and the high youth unemployment rate. / Yonhap

By Yoon Sung-won, Kwon Ji-youn, Park Jin-hai

All able-bodied Korean men aged over 18 are subject to compulsory military service. No matter how many people say it's an honorable deed to fulfill one's military duty, most feel it an interruption in a career path.

Leaving the rigid top-down rank system and exhausting training aside, the fact that they must spend the remainder of their youth deprived of freedom, is considered to be one of the top reasons for the half-heartedness.

Recently, however, joining the army has become a competition as the number of applicants has surged.

Choi Ji-hoon, a 21-year-old college student, told The Korea Times that he was embarrassed to realize that he should have made far more effort to fulfill his military duty than just applying for it.

In 2012, Choi applied for the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) but couldn't have the opportunity to serve in it. Then a year later, he volunteered for the Air Force, which picks out new recruits through document examination and interview. Unfortunately, Choi was dropped again.

"I didn't ever expect before the competition for the army would be fierce like this. Maybe I was too naive," he said.

In 2013, more than 500,000 applicants were crowded for the Army, which is more than three times of the year's quota, 150,000 new recruits, according to the Military Manpower Administration (MMA). The MMA oversees military recruitment here.

Other branches of the Korean military saw even higher competition. The Navy and the Air Force recorded competition rates of 4.3 to one and 4.8 to one, respectively, while 3.8 times more applicants vied for the Marine Corps higher than its regular quota. To win over the competitors, applicants needed a better attendance rate and scholastic achievements from their middle and high schools.

Prolonged economic depression and youth unemployment are cited as one of the main contributors for such a stiff competition.

An official of the MMA said that as job seeking increasingly became harder for youths, many who hurry to map out their career plan tend to believe it is better get the military duty out of the way as early as they possibly can.

"The number of military applicants has repeatedly soared before with economic difficulties. For example, during the foreign exchange crisis in 1997 and the U.S.-bound financial crisis in 2008," he said.

A new recruit creeps under a net of barbed wire during training at the Korea Army Training Center in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, on Feb. 2. /Korea Times photo by Kim Joo-sung

For commonly-preferred months from January to May, the competition becomes even fiercer. As the MMA chooses new recruits only by lottery and the order of arrival between February and May starting this year, many who were dropped out of the recruitment process have to consider other options or wait for several months for the next recruitment.

Choi said that missing the opportunity to start his military term from when he planned can be critical to the life plan in his early- and mid-20s.

"I believe whoever has to spend at least 21 months for the duty come to think about ‘when to return to school' and ‘when to look for a job,'" he said. "If I add a plan to study abroad in this, the importance of timing grows even bigger."

Extra effort for specialist positions

Besides the timing to start one's military duty, "how to serve the duty" has been an important concern for those who prepare for their military term. Some even attend group study meetings to prepare for the application for special military assignment positions which are said to allow them to make the most of their special abilities.

Baek Jun-yeong, 23, a senior at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, served his mandatory military service as a translator.

He said that being chosen as one of them was not easy at all. "When I applied in 2010, the competition was one out of seven or eight," he said.

As for the English translator soldiers, the basic requirement for TOEIC score is 900, but the cut-off score usually hovers around 970, with 990 being the perfect score for the test.

To be qualified for the special assignment position, he put together a study group with other friends and practiced translation and interpretation skills for five months. But he said many who prepare for the position tend to study longer than that.

"Compared to other competitors, the preparation time could be relatively shorter since we are students majoring in translation and interpretation," he said. "Unlike us, I have seen many others studying for one or two years before applying for the military. Some even take classes at institutes for that purpose."

Baek said that the most ideal way to serve his duty he thought was that in which he could use what he learned while doing the military service. Baek added he heard that the position is most likely to be stationed near Seoul, where he lives, and is physically less tiring, which were other reasons why he wanted to be a translator soldier.

However, Baek said that the reality was different from what he had expected. He said the chances to meet and talk with foreign soldiers was very limited. Instead, far between and throughout the two-year service time, what he had to do was actually the same as other soldiers with ordinary assignment positions. Unlike KATUSA, translator soldiers work for the Korean military forces.

"I know so many people prepare for the position, some even taking one or two year time-off. But I doubt it is worth the effort," he said.

With its reputation for a working environment that is said to exceed other Korean military forces, KATUSA's competition rate for 2014 averaged at 6.7 to 1 as 14,115 applied for 2,100 new recruit positions.

As KATUSA soldiers are to communicate with U.S. soldiers, applicants are required to submit their English proficiency test score to the Military Manpower Administration.

Lee Dong-young, 33, who was honorably discharged from KATUSA after serving his term at the Yongsan base in Seoul, said that his term was beneficial on a personal level-- studying English and preparing for his future career.

"Since we could stay out of the base on weekends, I could even participate in the study groups in downtown," Lee said. "Many of my colleagues at the same base studied for various certifications. I heard that some before me even passed for the national bar examination whiling serving the national duty."

After he finished the service, Lee went abroad to study accounting. Now he is teaching accounting at a university in California.

"In retrospect, I think the time I spent in the military barracks was the time I have split seconds to better spend it, working in and out of the base. I believe it was worthwhile preparing for it," he added.