SOUTH KOREAN MEN EVADING MILITARY SERVICE

(Seoul, South Korea) At a time when the US is urging South Korea to send military support to help with the rebuilding in Iraq, thousands of men are looking for ways to avoid service. The country requires that all able-bodied men serve at least 26 months in the military, however, a disturbing number are finding ways to avoid the obligation.

One method used by the men is to emigrate to another country and claim foreign citizenship. The government is attempting to stop this activity by targeting for prosecution travel agencies and Internet sites that encourage young men to skip the military, while offering tips on how to do so. Some men have even decided to get:

. . . full-back tattoos in order to be ruled ineligible for military service. Conscription rules say that large tattoos make young men ineligible for service because the tattoos cause "abomination among fellow soldiers."

Earlier this year, South Korean police rounded up nearly 200 men and charged them with "willfully tampering with their bodies to avoid military duty."

Besides earning laughable wages, men in the military are reported to be regularly assaulted and abused which provides more than adequate motivation for avoiding the service entirely.

Interestingly, this story follows a recent previous post which discusses a thriving business where Korean women travel to the US for the primary purpose of giving birth. Being born in the US bestows US citizenship on the offspring and eliminates the obligatory military service requirement.