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South Korea requires all of its male citizens to serve in the military for two years. Here's what that experience is like.
The law requires every male to serve the military, and it is extremely hard to get out of it.If you purposely evade the military duty, you will get jail time.
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The service is mandatory mainly because our relationship with North Korea.After things got intensified after the Korean War, there was a need for an active force for the South Koreans, so the military can always be ready.
I served the Korea military between the years of 2009 and 2011.Before the military, I was living in New York.I decided to go because I had to get it over with it at some point.
At the time I did my military service, I hated it.I just hated every moment being in there, trapped in that isolated society.And I just waited for my time to pass.
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I haven't seen a single person who really wanted to be there, who was enthusiastic to be there.People generally want to avoid the military because, I think, of the forcefulness of it.Compared to the US, where the military is voluntary, and you can pursue it as a career, in Korea, 2 years of service is mandatory, and everyone is forced to do it.
You're living your free life and then suddenly isolated from the rest of the society.You have no contact.You can’t fill your cell-phone addiction there.And you're basically sacrificing 2 years of your youth for the nation.
So, on the first day when you enter the military.As soon as you enter this training base, you meet these instructors that train you for 5 weeks on from there.They intentionally try to intimidate you, try to scare you, in order to make you into a soldier.
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This 5 weeks of training was one of the most intense experiences I had.You’re not even a private at this moment.You are a trainee.The training is very intense.You are yelled at constantly. You don't have avoice there. You can only do what you're told to do and nothing else.
You learn to move very fast.When you’re ordered something, you have to run to get it, you have to run to do it. And if you hesitate, you get picked on for that.If you get around 5 minutes of rest, then you're happy with that. You re-learn things that you thought you already knew.There's a certain way to eat. There's a certain way to stand. There’s a certain way to talk to people. There's a certain way to do everything in the military.
One of the most memorable trainings that I did was this training called 화생방 훈련. Which is to prepare soldiers to defend against a chemical attack.The hardest part was when I and my group had to go into this gas-filled room.
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And you enter the room with your gas mask on, and there's also an instructor there with a gas mask on.He eventually orders you to put off the gas mask. And when you're exposed to this gas it doesn't have long-term effects on you, but anywhere that's exposed would hurt like hell.It feels like a thousand needles just pinching on to you and grabbing onto you.
And when you inhale this gas, it feels like you're suffocating.Basically, you can’t breathe. It's just chaos in that tiny room. Everyone’s grabbing onto each other. Everyone’s rolling on the floor.There was this one guy. He ran to the door trying to get out, but there was a guard there who prevented that.And it was total chaos.
After your 5 weeks of training, you’re relocated to your battalion. So, this is your home from now on. You would stay there for your private to sergeant life. From day one to the end of your service, you hear a lot about North Korea from the officials.
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They designate the North Korean military as our enemy.This was the first time when I learned that North Korea has invaded South Korea even after the truce multiple times.
I don't know if it's because I've been brainwashed, but now I'm convinced that they have the capability and will to do a lot of damage to the Korean Society.There's always a potential that the North Koreans can Invade us and the military's trying to prepare for that.
Looking back at the experience, I think I gained a few things. There's a saying in the military, If you can't make it work, make it work. I learned that if you really put your will and just do it, then I can really achieve...I feel like I can achieve anything.By now, most people in South Korea know the national team’s victory over Japan in the Asian Games football tournament secured not just the gold medal, but also an exemption from military service for Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min. The win also brought global attention to a simmering social and political issue in South Korea.
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All male South Koreans aged 18 to 35 undertake mandatory military service. Most start in their early 20s, disrupting tertiary education or postponing career entry. For most, mandatory military service includes five weeks of boot camp, and around two years of mind-numbing battalion boredom, indoctrination, and short bouts of intense training. Understandably, few want to do military service.
Son Heung Min during the gold medal match between South Korea and Japan at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: Allsport via Getty)
South Korea is a country going through momentous social change. What commenced with economic development in the 1980s, and continued with political development in the 1990s, continued into the 2000s with social change. But since the 2010s, youth unemployment, economic instability, gender inequality, corruption and social immobility has led to growing social dissatisfaction with the pace of this change.
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Critics argue South Korea’s mandatory military service system is more likely to train recruits in make-up and skin care, than it is to prepare them to defend the country.
Mandatory military service is an ever-recurring source of social dissatisfaction. Controversies include corruption, easier service conditions for celebrities, dual national service obligations, bullying, and an outdated criteria for exemptions.
Exemptions to military service are the latest controversy. There are currently no exemptions for conscientious objection, something the government is looking into after a June 2018 Constitutional Court decision required the government to provide alternatives forms of national service. Exemptions for having excessive tattoos, being overweight, underweight, having certain medical conditions, holding foreign citizenship and/or residency, being of non-Korean ethnicity, and studying in fields deemed of national importance, have all been restricted.
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Exemptions are given to high-achieving sports figures, artists, classical musicians and dancers, but controversially, not to high-achieving pop culture stars, actors or film-makers.
Mandatory military service historically serves two broad aims: national security and nation building. It can act as an important force multiplier in periods of national emergency, and can equally act as an important social equalizer, reinforcing the individual’s connection to the nation and society. For many South Koreans, its current form does not fully reflect either of these aims. Debate is emotional and muddied by nationalist rhetoric and political ideology.
On one side are those who see mandatory military service as a bulwark. It is seen as essential in the context of North Korean contingencies, ranging from invasion to collapse. Equally, it is seen as essential in the context of the fraught geopolitical situation amid US interests, Japan, China and Russia.
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Some also see mandatory military service as a bulwark supporting South Korean traditions and society. It encourages social connection, conformity, hierarchy, and a shared sense of national pride. Among those having completed their service, popular sentiment has it that the experience “makes boys into men” – even arguing that it’s essential to understand and survive South Korea’s work and corporate culture.
On the other side are those who believe that the current mandatory military service is an obstruction. It is seen as outdated and ineffective in the context of national security. Countries facing similarly fraught geopolitical situations do not restrict service to just one half of the population and allow exemptions for conscientious objection. All Israeli citizens undertake mandatory military service, with females serving around two years, and there are stipulated exemptions for religious students.
Critics argue South Korea’s mandatory military service system is more likely to train recruits in make-up and skin care than it is to prepare them to defend the country. Others see mandatory military service as an obstacle to transforming South Korean society. It discourages diversity and inclusion, further marginalizes the socially estranged, and above all, buttresses entrenched gender inequality.
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Reforming South Korea’s military service system is a political can of worms with few clear options. Abandoning mandatory military service in favour of an expanded volunteer professional service would serve national security aims, but at the same time, would not serve nation building aims. Restructuring military service into a non-compulsory, better-paid, reserve service would serve both national security and nation building aims, but would potentially reinforce social
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