Korea Vs. Men: The Plight of Conscientious Objectors

[porandojin.livejournal.com]

By Matt VanVolkenburg, Ben K. Wagner

May 15 is International Conscientious Objectors’ Day, but don’t expect much of a celebration from Korean authorities. Refusing to participate in the nation’s compulsory military service on the grounds of conscience has never been recognized by the Republic of Korea, and Korean conscripts who nonetheless try, find themselves facing prison time. That’s not the case in most countries where, even with conscription in effect, alternative forms of service are available for conscientious objectors. Then again, most countries aren’t neighbors to a million man military dictatorship that routinely threatens to turn your capitol into a “sea of fire.” 

 

Whatever one’s position on the status of conscientious objectors, the government’s disdain for those it perceives as shirking their duty to defend a nation still technically at war is at least understandable. Korea takes its compulsory military service requirement very seriously and rigorously prosecutes anyone who attempts to avoid it. In 2009, nearly 1,000 men were arrested charges of evading military duty. 

In May 2010, nine members of the world-renowned b-boy crew T.I.P. were arrested on suspicion of faking psychiatric illnesses to get out of military service. The Military Manpower Association (MMA), which manages conscription in Korea, called their actions “loathsome and unacceptable.”  In April this year, singer and TV personality MC Mong received a six-month suspended sentence for trying to avoid military duty by repeatedly applying for state-administered exams. When rumors — followed by criminal charges — arose last fall that he had intentionally pulled out healthy teeth to avoid the draft (a charge he was later cleared of), his TV career came to an abrupt end, with shows he had been a part of erasing all mention of him. 

The taboo against “draft-dodgers” has even blocked the way to the presidency. Allegations that presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang’s two sons had avoided military service by deliberately losing weight before the army medical examination helped lead to his defeat by Kim Dae-jung in 1997. 

Despite contempt shown for those who avoid military service through fraud or nepotism, not everyone serves in the military. Those with health problems such as poor eyesight, or those who are the only males in their family line, are allowed to work for public companies or other agencies. Those who refuse military service on religious or pacifist grounds, however, can expect no such alternative service.

During the Japanese colonial period, religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused military service were sent to prison; the ROK has kept this practice alive and more than 15,000 COs have been jailed since then. Some 700 conscientious objectors are imprisoned every year.

While the standard sentence was at least three years (it’s since been reduced to 18 months), authorities sometimes went to sadistic extremes, demanding those who had served their time to enlist upon release so as to repeatedly imprison them (one Jehovah’s Witness, Chun Chung-kuk, served three prison terms totaling nearly eight years between 1969 and 1981). Even after release, conscientious objectors continue to face serious challenges. In addition to being ineligible for employment with public agencies and many companies, the stigma of being ex-cons and “draft-dodgers” makes life difficult.

Because the vast majority of conscientious objectors are Jehovah’s Witnesses, perceived as a small and heretical sect, sympathy was sparse and their plight was seldom reported on. This all changed in 2001, when a forum focused on this unknown history of Jehovah’s Witness draft objectors. Later that year, Oh Tae-yang, a Buddhist cleric, refused to be drafted and turned to the courts to challenge the existing laws. In doing so, he evaded arrest warrants, secured a hearing before the Constitutional Court, and turned conscientious objection into a heated political issue.  In the midst of the debate, a small number of conscientious objectors who were not Jehovah’s Witnesses began to refuse military service.

The issue was brought before the public in 2004 like never before. A Seoul district court dropped a legal bombshell on May 21, 2004 when it acquitted three Jehovah's Witnesses, ruling that the Constitution protected their freedom of conscience – a decision spurned by the MMA and 75 percent of respondents in a poll conducted shortly thereafter.  In July, the Supreme Court upheld a prison sentence for a conscientious objector, but also called for an alternative service system to be implemented. In August, the Constitutional Court likewise ruled against conscientious objectors, citing the current security situation. Two Justices, however, submitted a strong dissent, finding prison time for objectors with genuinely held beliefs “unconstitutional.” The Justices argued that a non-military alternative service system just as demanding as military service would eliminate criticisms of improper privileges and admonished legislators for failing to implement such a system. 

In 2005, the National Human Rights Commission showed support for conscientious objectors and called for an alternative service program.  In 2006, the Defense Ministry pledged to study the issue; and in 2007 – after the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) found the ROK to be in breach of its commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) for failing to provide alternative service for two conscientious objectors – the Defense Ministry announced an alternative service program allowing them to serve at social welfare centers for 36 months. But the Lee Myung-bak administration scrapped the plan in 2008, claiming a lack of “national consensus” and citing a poll showing 68 percent of respondents opposed to alternative service for conscientious objectors. 

In 2010, after Oh Tae-yang and six other conscientious objectors brought a separate petition to the UNHRC, the Committee once again found the ROK in breach of it commitments under the ICCPR. That was strike two, strike three came just last month when the UNHRC examined another petition by 100 Jehovah’s Witnesses and recommended the ROK expunge their criminal records and provide compensation. With three strikes against the ROK at the UNHRC, one wonders whether such criticism will prod the government into implementing an alternative service program for conscientious objectors or whether the government will persist in its refusal, citing Korea’s “special” security situation and public opposition to alternative service. 

Opponents to the implementation of an alternative service program invariably raise the proverbial “floodgates” argument. As the MMA put it, for instance, when Oh Tae-yang first brought his first case in 2002: “If Oh should win his case, everyone will declare himself a conscientious objector, and there will be chaos on the Korean Peninsula.” While, admittedly, there are cases where individuals attempt to dodge the draft through fraud and deceit, this argument seems to rely on the cynical and unjust presumption that most Korean males, if given the opportunity, would do the same. 

 

Ultimately, the determination of conscientious objectors status is a question of fact like any other status that may allow one to legitimately avoid military service. And if the authorities are able to investigate cases of break-dancers feigning psychosis and determine whether or not an extracted tooth should have remained in place, then certainly uncovering cases of fraudulent attempts to invoke conscientious objector status is within their ability. 

Finally, it should be remembered that those Koreans asking the ROK to acknowledge their conscientious objector status aren’t looking to avoid civic duty; they’re asking for a means to fulfill it. Certainly conscientious objectors will be able to benefit the Republic and its national security more by participating in alternative service programs of equal length and burden than by being locked up in prison, as more than 5,000 have been since the issue was first brought to the public’s attention a decade ago. 

 source hiexpat.com/korea-blog/korea-vs-men-the-plight-of-conscientious-objectors.html

 

Comments

mind=blown

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

.. There's Jeovah's Witnesses in Korea?
All of my friends were Methodists or Buddhists.

[weerainbow.livejournal.com]

Wow I never realised that this was such an issue in Korea, that conscientious objectors were even subjected to jail time! Surely there are many ways they could allow for those people who feel they cannot take part in military service.

[kms012.livejournal.com]

Interesting read! Every time an article like this pops up I always feel sorry for all of the Korean men who are forced into military service. Two years is a hell of a long time.