This guy had an easy job as it was for his mandatory service and found a way to blow it. They should send him to a frontline military unit to complete this service to send a message to anyone else trying to defraud their mandatory service time:
The Seoul Administrative Court found Tuesday that a man completing his alternative military service working at his father’s company had violated the Military Service Act.
A 37-year-old man surnamed Yoo had served alternative military service for three years between March 2013 and February 2016 as an expert researcher at an institute approved by the military. After requesting a transfer from the initial institute he was serving at, Yoo spent 14 months, from February 2014 to when he was discharged, at the research institute which is run by a company of which his father was the representative director.
The National Police Agency only uncovered the connection in 2018 while probing the company for another allegation of violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act. Police found during the probe that Yoo’s father had been the representative director effectively running the research institute. The Military Manpower Administration in turn determined Yoo to have violated the Military Service Act.
In November 2018, Yoo received a notice from the Military Manpower Administration to serve his compulsory military duty again. However, because Yoo was over 36, he was told to serve as a public service worker. In turn, Yoo filed a suit against the Military Manpower Administration to withdraw its cancellation of his completion of alternative service.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
This whole situation makes me wonder if the only reason Byun enlisted was to be activist like this:
South Korea’s first transgender soldier on Wednesday pleaded to be allowed to continue to serve after the military decided to discharge her.
Byun Hee-soo, an Army staff sergeant in her 20s, voluntarily enlisted as a man in 2017 and underwent sex reassignment surgery in November last year. A military panel decided not to allow the noncommissioned officer to stay in the Army.
Right after the decision was announced, Byun came out in public and held an emotional press conference before TV cameras, requesting equal treatment for sexual minorities and the right to complete the military service.
“I hope that sexual minorities in the military can carry out their duties without discrimination and I want to set a good precedent in this kind of case and want to add power to make that happen,” she said while wearing a military uniform.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see what the ROK military does with this case:
Will South Korea accept a transgender person in the military?
Korea Times
The Army is examining a “keep or drop” case involving a petty officer who underwent sex-change surgery in Thailand last year while on leave.
The officer ― who is also seeking to change his legal gender to “female” ― is recuperating from the surgery, hoping to stay in the military.
The Army is planning to hold a meeting next week to decide on the case. If the decision is to keep “him,” he will become the first transgender person in uniform. This could have a far-reaching impact on a society facing heated conflicts over LGBT and gender-based discrimination.
You can read more at the link.
That is what the National Human Rights Commission of Korea believes:
The nation’s human rights watchdog recommended the Korean Air Force to stop making new trainees shave their heads, Monday, saying the practice is an excessive restriction of the soldiers’ rights.
Unlike their counterparts in the Korean army and navy, air force recruits are required to completely shave their heads during the month-long training period. Army or navy trainees, on the other hand, are allowed to keep a crew cut up to 5 cm length at the front.The complaint was brought to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) last April. The complainant ― the parent of an Air Force trainee at the time ― claimed the head-shaving practice was an encroachment on soldiers’ human rights.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
If South Korea’s conscripts get paid minimum wage this will probably lead eventually to a major push to professionalize the force and do away with mandatory service:
Both the public and the government are increasingly aware of soldiers’ right to due monetary compensation, shifting away from considering military service as a statutory civic duty without adequate financial return, experts say.
“There’s the growing public understanding that we can no longer urge soldiers to serve active duty out of their allegiance or commitment to the country,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.
Besides, the intense debate regarding the legal minimum wage here has had an impact, he said.
“We’ve recently had and continue to see a heated debate about setting the minimum wage, and while doing that, I think, we’ve come across the military sector as well — whether conscripted soldiers are paid right doing what they do.”
Starting this year, sergeants will receive an increased monthly stipend of 540,900 won ($466). Corporals and privates will receive slightly less. The hike marks a 33 percent on-year jump.
That is about 40 percent of the country’s minimum monthly wage in 2017.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Something to remember is that a Patriot battery is not going to protect Seoul against North Korea’s artillery which is the real defense problem for the nation’s capitol:
A Patriot surface-to-air missile battery has recently been installed on Mount Bukak near Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul, according to political sources, Tuesday. The battery system reportedly consists of a launcher for PAC-2 (Patriot advanced capability-2) missiles and another one for PAC-3 missiles.
Korea Times
The deployment of the unit in Seoul is aimed at strengthening the defense of the capital. The plan was devised after South Korea allowed the United States to deploy a terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) battery in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province in 2017. While the THAAD system has strengthened the defense of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, concerns have been that defense of the capital area was relatively weak.
You can read more at the link.
You have to be a Korea watcher for many years to understand the significance of this delivery:
South Korea on Monday took delivery of its first Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, vastly expanding the range of its aerial surveillance to include the entirety of the Korean Peninsula and beyond.
The high-altitude RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk drone, built by U.S. defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman, arrived at an Air Force base in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, at around 5 a.m. – the first of four such aircraft Seoul acquired in an approximately $1.2-billion deal.
Seoul’s earliest attempt to acquire the drone from the United States took place in 2003 – when North Korea was in the early stages of its nuclear development program – and it was only in 2014 that the acquisition was finally approved by Washington. While the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was expected to be delivered by early 2018, the United States delayed the transfer owing to cybersecurity issues. Then errors with the drones’ radar and electro-optical or infrared sensors caused further delays this year.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but this sale has been in the works since 2003 because of the delays caused by concerns that technology and information would be leaked to North Korea. Now with the US wanting the ROK to take on more of their defense responsibilities the sale was approved and hopefully whatever concerns of technology leaks has been mitigated as well.
Competition to get a coveted KATUSA slot is about to get more fierce as the ROK Army is set to greatly reduce the number of KATUSA soldiers:
The Republic of Korea (ROK) Army will drastically reduce the number of soldiers selected for the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) starting next year, as fewer are needed due to the relocation of U.S. bases to the newly expanded U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, according to ROK Army sources, Wednesday.
Korea Times
This is the first time for the Army to curtail its KATUSA selection.
Each year, the ROK Army selects around 2,000 troops to become KATUSAs, but that number will be slashed to 1,600 next year and continue to be reduced through 2022.
“The reduction in KATUSA selection is part of the nation’s ongoing defense reforms, and also in line with the decreasing number of conscripts and the realignment of personnel at the Eighth United States Army. The number will be reduced further in phases in the coming years,” a ROK Army official told The Korea Times.
There are currently about 3,500 KATUSAs, including commissioned and non-commissioned officers, but the ROK Army plans to reduce this by up to 900 by 2022, a decrease of over 25 percent.
In late 2018, 2,026 KATUSAs were selected among 14,251 applicants to be conscripted this year, a competition rate of 6.9 to 1.
You can read more at the link, but instead of a 7 to 1 chance of getting a KATUSA slot, now applicants will face 10 to 1 odds.
