Man sentenced for self-harm to dodge military service

A man in his 20s who engaged in extreme fasting and high-intensity exercise, including jumping rope 1,000 times a day, to avoid mandatory military service was found guilty. On Jan. 1, the Daegu District Court Criminal Division 5, presided over by Judge Ahn Kyung-rok, sentenced the man, identified only as A, to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, for deliberately harming his body to obtain classification as a public service worker, in violation of the Military Service Act.

Ahead of his military physical examination, A learned around February 2021 that a body mass index below 16 could result in a Grade 4 classification, qualifying him for public service. At the time, he was about 175 centimeters tall and weighed roughly 50 kilograms, placing his BMI close to the cutoff.

Believing he could avoid active-duty military service, he embarked on an extreme weight-loss regimen. Beginning in July 2021, about three months before his physical examination, he jumped rope 1,000 times a day without exception. Starting three days before the test, he nearly stopped eating altogether. As a result, during his first physical examination at the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Military Manpower Administration on Sept. 16, 2021, he weighed 46.9 kilograms, with a BMI of 15.3. At a second examination on Nov. 29, his weight was 47.8 kilograms, with a BMI of 15.5.

Although the results initially appeared to qualify him for reserve service, A was flagged following a urinalysis. Medical findings suggested he may have deliberately induced starvation or engaged in prolonged fasting to reduce his weight. Investigators later discovered that he had sent messages to friends preparing for military service, recommending the same weight-loss methods he had used to secure a classification as a public service worker.


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