Text Fwd: Cutting Military Service Period by 2 to 3 Months Suggested

Korea Times
11-24-2009 19:43
Cutting Military Service Period by 2 to 3 Months Suggested
By Jung Sung-ki, Staff Reporter

In a change of position, the Ministry of National Defense is considering reducing the planned cut in the compulsory military service period from six months to two to three months.

In response to questions from ruling party lawmakers, the ministry submitted a document to the National Assembly earlier this month in which it said the reduction would play a role in resolving problems concerning a potential manpower shortage that could arise as a result of implementing defense reform plans, ministry officials said.

The Defense Reform 2020 plan calls for downsizing the number of troops by 270,000 by 2020 in stages and instead equipping the armed forces with high-tech weapons systems.

Under the original plan decided under the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration, the service periods for the Army, Navy and Air Force are to be shortened to 18, 20 and 22 months, respectively, by 2014.

Critics have said the policy was politically motivated to win support from young voters ahead of the 2012 presidential election without solving any potential problems from the lack of manpower.

Against that backdrop, lawmakers from the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) submitted bills to restrict the planned reduction in the mandatory service period.

Rep. Yoo Seung-min of the GNP proposed a bill to reduce the service periods of each military branch by four months.

Yoo cited the results of a 2003 study made by the state-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The study said that the service period should be at least 22 months to secure “well-trained” service members.

“Reducing the service period by as much as six months, only on the basis of a government decision without a national consensus, is too excessive,'” Yoo said. “We should come up with measures to prevent a possible security vacuum as a result of an excessive reduction in the service period.”

The ministry will commission a fresh feasibility study to the institute next year before making a final decision on the issue.

An interim study by the ministry showed that under the original service-period reduction plan, there would be a shortage of some 2,000 service members by 2021, and the number of would increase to up to 90,000 by 2045, given the current low birthrate and the decrease in the country’s male population.

Delays in procuring planned weapons systems due to an insufficient increase in defense budgets have also affected the reduction plan. The Roh administration believed the reduction in the service period would be feasible assuming that the defense budget could increase by 7.9 percent every year until 2020.

Next year’s defense budget proposal, however, marks only a 7.3-percent increase.

Korea maintains a compulsory conscription system in which all able-bodied men over 19 are required to serve in the military.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr