https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/world/asia/south-korea-draft-conscientious-objectors.html
In South Korea, Draft Resisters Still Go to Prison. But Now It’s a Job.
A court ruled that conscientious objectors must be allowed to serve their country in other ways. The government says they’ll still have to do so behind prison walls.
South Korean conscripts in April. Mandatory military service is seen as a rite of passage for able-bodied men in South Korea.
· Oct. 24, 2020
SEOUL, South Korea — Like thousands of other Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to join the military because of their religious beliefs, Lee Seung-ki will serve time in a South Korean prison.
But unlike those before him, Mr. Lee will not enter as a convicted criminal. He will be among the first conscientious objectors in South Korea allowed to perform alternative service — jobs like cook, janitor and clinic assistant — behind prison walls.
For three years starting on Monday, Mr. Lee and 63 others will work, eat and sleep in prisons, though they will live apart from the inmates and will be allowed several weeks of leave. And unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses who served prison terms for their beliefs, they will have no criminal record to trail them for the rest of their lives.
Alternative service is a seismic shift in a country that considers conscription crucial to its defense against North Korea, with which it is still technically at war. Military duty is seen as a revered rite of passage for able-bodied young men, who are required to spend 21 months in uniform, usually between the ages of 18 and 28.
South Korea has imprisoned more conscientious objectors than any other country. Its Military Service Act requires up to three years in prison for those who refuse the draft without “justifiable” reasons. For decades, hundreds of young men, almost all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses, were put behind bars each year, usually for 18 months. As inmates, they did much of the same work that Mr. Lee will be doing.
“The difference is that the old objectors did it for 18 months wearing a prisoner’s uniform, but we will do it for three years as legalized conscientious objectors,” Mr. Lee said. “I am grateful that I am finally given this chance to serve the country without violating my conscience.”
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