[WHY] Will the Korean military ever draft women?

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[WHY] Will the Korean military ever draft women?

Published: 02 Sep. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 11 Sep. 2023, 18:09

Newly commissioned Army and Navy officers attend a commissioning ceremony for the 63rd cohort of the Korea Armed Forces Nursing Academy held in Daejeon on March 6. [NEWS1]

Ever wondered why BTS has to answer the call of duty, but girl groups like Blackpink don’t?

Well, they actually might have to in the coming decade.

Due to Korea’s ever-plunging birthrate, which hit an appalling total fertility rate of 0.78 in 2022, the military has fallen short of its goal to maintain a standing force of 500,000 when the number of troops lingered at around 480,000 in December 2022.

The new target of 500,000 was proposed by the defense white paper published in February of that year.

The number of standing troops sank to the 500,000 mark for the first time ever, and was down 21.8 percent from the total headcount ten years ago. The military lost 100,000 troops between 2018 and 2022.

The worst is yet to come.

The conscription pool of military-aged men shrank considerably in 2021 when the population of men in their 20s dropped below 300,000 for the first time ever that year, according to research conducted by Cho Kwan-ho, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), in June.

A second demographic "cliff" looms near as the population of men in their 20s is projected to drop below 220,000 in 2036, and further down to 120,000 in 2042.

“The military needs 220,000 new service members each year to maintain a standing force of 500,000,” Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup said during a National Defense Committee meeting in July.

Military-aged men receive physical examinations for conscription at a regional Military Manpower Administration facility in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 1. [YONHAP]

How about increasing the number of servicewomen?

The grim future prompted some people to propose utilizing the other half of Korea's population, exempt from the duty of service, to fill the shortage, a move which the Defense Ministry is in fact keen on.

According to KIDA, there were 15,000 servicewomen in 2022, up 50 percent from the 10,000 in 2016. The percentage of female officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in the armed forces rose to 9 percent from 6.3 percent during the cited period. The Defense Ministry plans to increase that number to 15.3 percent by 2027.

The military has been trying to offer a better service environment for women to that end, including setting up 734 women’s toilets and lounges at bases across Korea between 2019 and 2022.

It also assigned servicewomen to a wider range of key leadership posts at the Army’s operations team near the demilitarized zone, the Air Force’s search and rescue squadron, and the Marine’s infantry battalion, for the first time in 2021. A female brigadier general broke the glass ceiling to become the first female major general in 2019.

However, despite the military’s effort to attract more women into service, it is highly unlikely that thousands of new servicewomen will be enough to replenish the loss of troops rising by hundreds of thousands.

The question is, will the Korean government — repeatedly insisting that women’s conscription is not on the table — ever introduce compulsory military service for women?

Lieutenant Colonel Park Ji-yeon became the first-ever commander of a fighter squadron when she was assigned to lead the 202nd Fighter Squadron, 16th Fighter Wing, in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang, on Dec. 3, 2019. [REPUBLIC OF KOREA AIR FORCE]

Initial discussions on women's conscription

Before the recent demographic crisis brought the fated workforce deficit to light, the debate on women's conscription was largely limited to Korean men demanding appropriate compensation for their compulsory service or calling upon the government to have women shoulder the responsibility with them.

The controversy intensified following a Constitutional Court decision in 1999 that abolished preferential points given to people who were applying for jobs in the public sector after their service period.

Two disabled men, unable to serve on active duty, and five female students had filed the case, receiving widespread support from civic groups for people with disabilities and women.

The court ruled that the Constitution only prohibits the unfavorable treatment of discharged servicemembers and does not provide a legal basis for administering active benefits for carrying out a “sacred duty.”

With the exception of a handful private companies that state job-related military specialty as a preferred experience or that pay higher starting salaries taking into consideration the time in active duty, no official compensation is currently granted to discharged servicemembers.

Between December 1999 and August 2018, a total of 13 petitions were filed to the Constitutional Court by those claiming that the Military Service Act violated the right to equality when it forced only men into the duty of military service.

The Constitutional Court dismissed 10 of those and ruled the service act constitutional in three cases in 2010, 2011 and 2014.

“Men, who are superior in muscular strength, have physical abilities more suited for battles,” all nine constitutional justices ruled unanimously in 2014.

The legislators’ discretion to conscript only men is justifiable because women, even those who possess exceptional physical abilities, face difficulty in the barracks and in military training due to their physiological characteristics such as menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth, the court explained.

The decision was met with backlash from those who pointed out an inconsistency in the law since the physical standards for female officers and NCOs were higher than those for the enlisted.

“The male-only conscription system led to criticism and stigma against women opting out of national duty," Kang In-hwa, an assistant humanities professor at Seoul National University who specializes in gender sociology, said in a 2023 study.

The system shaped a two-way confrontation between men and women, pushing aside rational discussions on the military service system, and such gender disputes only created mutual hatred and deepened a sense of deprivation, she added.

Female staff sergeants salute during an induction ceremony held at the Korea Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy in Iksan, North Jeolla, on Aug. 27, 2021. Of the 487 new servicemembers inducted that day, 82.5 percent, or 402, were women. [NEWS1]

Debate in recent years

Political figures picked up the hot potato, as discontent over the male-only conscription escalated among men, suggesting various methods to tackle the demographics issue.

One of these suggestions was adopting a mixed policy that transitions the military into a full voluntary service while requiring all sexes to complete several weeks of basic military training.

However, such proposals failed to gain public support as they were widely regarded as populist attempts by nonmainstream figures to gain votes.

“The issue is one that requires a comprehensive review of military utility and social consensus; thus it is not fitting for the Defense Ministry to make any statements on the matter,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan told reporters in April 2021 when the conscription debate got heated.

His response stirred public frustration over the fact that the top military body declined to comment on the very issue it has jurisdiction over.

“The Defense Ministry had ought to clarify its stance on the issue following deliberations on current security affairs and the military utility it brings,” said Lee Ji-hoon, a former army judge advocate who was discharged as a major.

“The ministry is the agency running the armed forces and is in charge of managing the treatment of discharged servicemembers. Who else other than the ministry should make a statement?” she added.

Lee also blasted the ministry for bringing up “social consensus,” pointing out that the conscription of men never emerged through such a consensus.

“Compensation for compulsory duties should be compulsory as well.”

Despite the Defense Ministry coming under fire for ambiguity, the government reiterated its views in its response to an online petition that garnered support from nearly 300,000 people in one month.

This was the only response that it gave to a total of 571 related petitions filed on the presidential website between August 2017 and May 2022.

Newly commissioned Navy and Marine officers raise their hands in salute during a commissioning ceremony held at the Republic of Korea Naval Academy in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on May 26. [NEWS1]

Why the passive attitude?

“The military leadership is well aware of the fact that it is only a matter of time before the military either decides to start conscripting women or transitioning to a voluntary service system,” said a former army brigadier general who specialized in personnel management and is currently a professor of security studies, requesting anonymity.

“Due to the political risk it entails, the issue will likely be tossed from one administration to another until the elephant in the room is no longer negligible.”

Recent surveys showed that Koreans have yet to reach a “social consensus.”

Of the 503 adults surveyed by Realmeter in July 2023, 56 percent of men and 53 percent of women opposed conscripting women.

Of the 1,006 people aged 18-28 surveyed by another pollster in June, 62 percent of men and 50 percent of women were in favor.

The ongoing staredown has the current Yoon Suk Yeol maintaining the previous administration’s wait-and-see strategy.

“It is premature [to conscript women], and conscripting them from a decaying population may only instigate a feud,” Military Manpower Administration Commissioner Lee Ki-Sik said during a press briefing on July 5.

“Human resources will remain at current levels until the mid-2030s and the decline beyond that needs to be tackled with automation and scientification currently under pursuit by the ‘Defense Innovation 4.0’ plan.”

Female honor guards perform at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on May 19. [NEWS1]

Change for the better

“The debate may seem futile, but it needs to prevail and make enough noise to start a reform in the service system one way or the other,” argued the general-turned-professor.

"The discussion must branch out beyond the boundaries of gender and into that of national security, though the expansion would be especially challenging in a society where men serving their duties and North Korea habitually firing missiles have become the norm to the point that it undermines the awareness on the importance of security."

Experts say sexuality should not be the gauge in the controversy.

“If women are called on to serve in the military under the notion that both genders are equal, women will inevitably be regarded as inferior to men in a system dominated by male standards,” Lee Hye-jung, a researcher at the Legal Research Institute of Korea University, said.

“On the other hand, if women are denied conscription or imposed a women-exclusive alternative service under the notion that men and women are different, the existing gender divide will continue to cage women in the stereotype of femininity that defines them as subjects needing protection.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift [...] to accept the duty of national defense as a joint responsibility,” Lee argued.

In her 2023 study on gender equality in the duty of national defense, she suggests referring to other countries’ conscription systems for clues moving forward.

Israel’s conscription has been a go-to model for Korea given the similar security environment.

The Israeli Defense Forces has drafted Jewish women since its establishment in 1948 following the country’s declaration of independence that year, but around 40 percent of women subject to conscription currently serve in the military, because married women and pregnant women are exempted from service. Non-Jewish Israeli women are also exempted.

The Norwegian Defence Ministry in 2008 included women in a screening process called sesjon to sort out potential women recruits based on physical and psychological examination results.

Norway’s gender-neutral conscription bill was passed in parliament in 2013 and related laws on military service and national defense were amended in 2014. In 2016, all able-bodied Norwegian men and women became subject to conscription.

Around 15 percent of them actually serve since Norway accepts conscientious objections.

Because Israel had a different starting point and Norway’s security environment is very different from that of Korea, it is imperative to constantly contemplate and study Korea’s own model, Lee assessed.

“Revising the legal system to promote the independence of men and women in national security and military service will be a long, gradual process that involves a shift in social views. Mature, constructive debates on national defense and gender equality should be carried out by everyone.”

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]