Skip to main content

Mandatory Service in South Korea

In South Korea, their government requires each able-bodied man between the ages of 18-35 to do at least 21 months of military service. The South Korean government has this rule in place due to their neighbors north of them, North Korea, and their recent nuclear threats.

There has been a lot of controversy around this topic of required military service globally. At the center of the attention is Korean band, BTS. BTS is a world famous ban made up of seven guys with their ages ranging 21-25. They have two chart-topping albums this year along with taking home an American Music Award for Favorite Social Artist, but all of this does not excuse them from their mandatory service.

Image result for how many members are in bts

Some of the rare circumstances that would excuse from your service are athletes who bring home medals in international competitions, acclaimed artists, classical musicians and dancers, while pop stars, filmmakers or actors are not excused. The most recent excuse issued was the South Korean Men's soccer team after they earned gold at Asian Games tournament.

South Korea's Prime Minister, Lee Nak-yon, wants to adjust the exemption system. He told his military last month "to come up with a more reasonable measure by reflecting the public's growing demands." Also, the Defense Ministry plans to scrap nearly all exemption to military services along with reducing the number of troops from 618,000 to 500,000. In addition, they plan on cutting the number of mandatory months of service from 21 to 18.

CLICK HERE to view the whole article

Image result for south korean soldiers

This article raises the question of do you think that the South Korean government should let certain type of people be exempted from their service? Why or why not? Also, do you think that the U.S. should implement this system of requiring men above 18 years old to do a certain amount of mandatory service? Why or why not? If so, would 18 months be a reasonable amount of time?

Comments

  1. Mr. LawlerOctober 26, 2018 at 9:55 AM

    Interesting post, Colin. I tend to think that if we instituted something like this in our country there would be a huge backlash. At the same time, though, does it make sense to support any war effort if we aren't willing ourselves to serve in the military? Something to think about.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Family History

When I was born, I was given the name Colin Brice Heath. My first name has no family significance as it was chosen by parents from a baby name book. For my first name, my parents wanted a name that was two syllables because my last name is only one syllable, and two one-syllable names would sound odd together. My mother wanted to make sure my name would be the name I was called; she didn't want any nicknames for me. My middle name does have a family connection: it is my dad's first name and is a tradition in my family to have the eldest son's middle name be the same as the father's. My last name is said to have come from England where it means meadow or open field. My father's side of the family originally came from England and Scotland. Unfortunately, my father's side has a complicated background, so much of the Heath family history has been lost. My family ended up in Chicago because my mother grew up in this area and went to New Trier. Her parents stayed in...
1 comment
Read more

Song of Solomon Halfway Reading Reflection

The most challenging part of reading Song of Solomon so far for me has been trying to remember each character’s relationship with all the other characters. With there being many characters and generations, it’s very hard to keep track of which person is related to who and how that might affect the story. This has made reading the chapters harder because I would have to think back to see how that specific character ties into the plot, but the more I read and annotate, the clearer the relationships become between characters. I have addressed my problem by trying to see how each character is related to Milkman because he is one of the characters that we are the most familiar with and he is also the youngest generation of the Dead family. By having the relationships be tied to Milkman, it makes it easier for me to find out what the Dead family tree looks like and how each character is involved in the story. I have also found that reading in a much quieter room is very helpful because th...
1 comment
Read more