Defense ministry to draft extra 14,000 for active duty service this year

The number of men who will join the military this year will increase by up to 14,000. The measure has been made given that more than 30,000 young men are behind schedules for their compulsory military service but cannot join even if they wish.

According to the Defense Ministry on Tuesday, the ministry decided to conscript extra 5,000 men on top of 9,000 whom the ministry had decided to draft additionally to ease excessive accumulation of manpower subject to military draft this year. Compared with 5,000 men who were additionally conscripted last year, the size of manpower to be drafted additionally has increased about three folds.

The number of men who are on standby to join the military, which exceeded 20,000 from 2013, amounts to a cumulative total of 52,000 this year. The ministry judges that unless the number of men who are behind schedules in their military service is not reduced within this year, it could develop into a social problem. Notably, the ministry judges that the number of abled men who are behind schedules for their military duty and who should be addressed this year reaches the maximum level, and hence has taken the extraordinary measure. The Korea Institute of Defense Analysis analyzes that unless a special measure is taken, the number of abled men who are behind schedules for their military service will amount to 213,000 on average per year through 2022.

The reason the number of men who are behind schedules in their conscription is a higher birthrate for men at certain ages, while many young men are seeking to join the military early on amid high youth unemployment. The birth rate of men who were born between 1991 and 1995, or those in their early to mid-20s, who tend to join the military by the largest number, is higher than that of groups who were born in other years. On top of this, as youth unemployment hit 10.2 percent (as of February), the highest level since 1999 due to the economic recession, the number of young men who seek to join the military has increased this year, compared with other years. Amid this situation, many men have to wait for conscription letters for more than a year even if they wish to the military right now.

The defense ministry plans not only to increase the number of men who are joining the military but also to reduce the number of those who are required to serve as active duty servicemen to the extent possible. The ministry plans to reduce the ratio of men who are obliged to serve in the military as active duty soldiers from the current 95 percent to 85 percent by revising executive ordinance on physical conditions for conscription including obesity as early as this month. The ministry is also planning to increase the number of men to be conscripted to the extent it reduced the number of volunteer servicemen.