Govt. to Manage High-profile Draft Cases Separately

A law designed to manage high-profile military draft cases will soon be introduced covering sons of high-ranking government officials and rich businessmen, celebrities and athletes.

The Ministry of Defense said on March 17 that it is mulling setting the Military Draft Act covering high-profile cases to promote fairness and openness for military service rules.

˝We have yet to prepare the proposal, but it will aim at recovering public trust in the military draft system,” said an official from MOD. ˝The foremost goal of this proposal is to address public concern over fairness of the system by applying the same rules to people with vested interests.˝

During the election campaign last year, President Roh pledged that he would introduce a special law managing high-profile military draft cases.

The Special Management Act was earlier enacted in 1972, but was abolished in 1988. It was reintroduced in 1992 only to be abolished again in 1997 after some lawmakers argued about the fairness of the system.

Since then, the Military Service Bureau has managed a list of special cases and conducted investigations into suspicious activities.

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com