South Korean Conscripts Receive a Pay Raise, Now Make $99 a Month
If you ever wondered how much a South Korean conscript to include the KATUSA soldiers assigned to US military units make, the answer is not much:
Conscript soldiers’ pay will increase in 2018 to 30 percent of this year’s minimum wage of an annual 1,352,230 won ($1,189.8). This means all draftees will receive 405,669 won, almost double the current 216,000 won. The announcement was made Monday at a regular press briefing by the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, President Moon Jae-in’s de facto power transition team.
Pay will be incrementally increased to 40 percent of the minimum wage by 2020, and reach 50 percent by 2022, equivalent to 540,892 won and 676,115 won, respectively.
The move is part of “fulfilling (Moon’s) national defense plan to increase soldiers’ pay,” committee spokesman Park Kwong-on said. President Moon had vowed better treatment for conscripted soldiers ― all able-bodied Korean men aged between 18 and 35 must serve in the military for up to 21 months. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but diving $1,189 annual salary by 12 months means the ROK conscripts are making roughly $99 a month. The cost savings from mandatory service is why the ROK military will never become a volunteer only military.
Volunteers tend to be lackadaisical allowing war ships to crash into others killing their fellow volunteers.
Another example of Korea not having to take of themselves and getting off on the cheap because of daddy war bucks.
South Korea is wealthy enough to pay their military equal to US
But then US defense contractors would lose profits.
And Korean men might not run off to America and freely overstay their visas having American idiots fight for them while Trump picks and chooses the race(s) he want to keep out(Mexicans & Muslims) over others.
Good thing you aren’t a surgeon. You’d be poking around my lungs for a hip replacement…
Draft militaries are completely different in composition and expectation than professional ones and as such are paid differently. If/when the RoK decides to upgrade their military from the old 1950’s model to a modern professional one, pay is one of several major areas that will require a huge overhaul but until then they seems quite content with their military theater and having 6 million guys sitting around doing f-all.
A) Mexican is a nationality (some say a sate of mind).
B) Muslim is a religion.
C) The only thing USFK fights is negative press.
D) You can’t run to the US form Korea, you have to fly. Duh.
E) Still would like an answer to the question I asked you in the open thread, don’t be scared.
Now days South Korea need lots of jobs, some that job filling needs Could be taken up with using the military, that pays better wages as long as they are in, kill two birds with one stone. Conscript or not. Because the way it stand now Korea military get a complete turn over of personnel ever two and haft years. It like a brand new army military nobody is a season soldier or military, brand new fresh. They are going to war with that kind military make up. They have lost before battle begun.
Why are you so full of hate for the people willing to defend your right to be offensive? Did a sailor do you wrong?
South Korea willing to risk getting by on the cheap because they have daddy warbucks here. Need to South Korea to step up to the plate and be ready to defend themselves by themselves. Quit hidding behind Uncle Sam’s pant leg.
Really I am starting to look at South Korea in a whole new light, because of that THAAD fiasco; that Moon J. In, did not know a second unit was being deployed to his country. Playing games and sending out protesters for high stakes theater, gaming the system to get leverage against the system and US government that would very well help protect them and their neighbors. I am pretty sure lots of korean would stay in the military if the pay could support families in a dignified way similar to the US career minded military personnel. I’ve just think the South Korean government is playing the US government. Something is just not right may be the both are playing the US South and North government,now South Korea got the North korean Taekwondo team turning the country. Something is just not right
It is not a second unit, it is one complete firing battery. The agreement was for one battery. Moon is so stupid he claims he didn’t know how many launchers were in one firing battery.