261 military service no-shows named publicly

The state manpower agency on Thursday publicly disclosed the personal information of 261 citizens who failed to comply with state orders to fulfill mandatory military service last year without due reasons.

The disclosure is in accordance with the 2015 revision of the Military Service Act as part of efforts to ensure fairness in the implementation of the compulsory system, according to the Military Manpower Administration (MMA). The list of dodgers has been disclosed once a year on its website since 2016.

Of the 261 people, 107 ignored their service as active duty soldiers, and 118 illegally stayed overseas without any prior report to authorities about their failure to get physical checkups for the compulsory duty.

The disclosed information includes names, ages, addresses and details about their dodging attempts. No celebrities or offspring of high-level officials were included on the list, according to the MMA.

“In March, we notified those who did not serve last year of the related facts and gave them six months to explain the reasons for the failure. Then a committee reviewed each case before disclosing the information,” the agency said in a release.

When they later serve in the military, the information will be deleted, it added. All able-bodied South Korean men must carry out compulsory military service for about two years in a country that faces North Korea across a heavily fortified border.

Yonhap