Are the exemption rules from serving the military service fair?
Should all the athletes who win the first place in the Asian Games be exempted from serving the military service?
In Korea, it is a must for men from the age of 20 to 28 to serve in the national military service. However, there are exemptions. Exemptions are made for the following:
- Those who have been imprisoned for more than a year and a half.
- Those who are addicted to drugs, drinking alcohol, games, etc.
- Those who have won a golden medal in competitions (sports, performance, classic music instruments etc.)
- Those who are overweight or underweight (based on their BMI Level).
- Those who have suffered from rupture of cruciate ligament.
- Orphans.
- Those who have difficulties making a living.
Recently, the 2018 Asian Games that was held in Jakarta ended. As a result, a lot of athletes – Korean soccer team, baseball team, etc. were exempted from serving the military service. Unfortunately, there were reports about athletes’ abuse of military exemption rules. One person who was involved in this is Oh JiHwan, a member of the Korean baseball team.
In 2016, when he was 26, Oh JiHwan and one of his baseball team members applied for the military, but they had small tattoos that caused them to be rejected from serving in the military. Although JiHwan’s team member immediately removed the tattoo and applied for military again, Oh JiHwan did not.
In 2017, he had a chance to apply for a position in military, but he did not apply until the end.
In 2018, he was selected as one of the baseball players to play in the 2018 Asian Games. During the competition, he failed to manage his health condition, and suffered from enteritis. In the end, the Korean baseball team won the first place, and all members were exempted from serving military service, even those who did not contribute as much.
“There needs to be strict requirements,” commented YoonSuh Kim (10C). “For example, there might have been players who didn’t run as much as the other players during the game. However, they still get to be exempted from serving at the military. It’s not that they didn’t work hard; it seems somewhat unfair for the players who actually scored a lot throughout the Asian Games.”
The fairness of exemption rules is currently being discussed in Korea. The majority of citizens in Korea believe that preexisting rules must be changed so that exploitation does not happen again.
Photo Courtesy of Richard Woojun Shim