Conscientious Objectors against Military Service in Korea

It has been only a year since sincere discussion on the conscientious objection to military service began in Korea. Hankyoreh 21, a progressive weekly magazine, published a one-page article on February 7, 2001, saying that currently over sisteen hundred conscientious objectors — all of them were Jehovah’s Witnesses — were in prison. This news was a shock because it was the first time that the number of imprisoned conscientious objectors was made known to the public. This article was followed by heated debates. Conscientious objection to military service, a well-known issue in the West but a totally alien topic in Korea, suddenly drew wide attention from society.

The South Korean student movement in the 1970s and 1980s vehemently challenged the military dictatorship. To achieve democracy, countless student activists did not hesitate to fight against dictators even though they knew that they would soon be imprisoned by the government. The impressive tradition of Korean student activism, however, did not produce any conscientious objectors. The Sixteen hundred young men in prison are not descendants of student activists, they are only Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are practicing conscientious objection to keep their religious faith.

The total absence of non-Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors – in spite of the strong tradition of student activism – symbolically shows the enormous strength of statism and militarism in Korea. The powerful state indoctrinated students with an ideology that it was a sacred duty for Korean youth to serve in the army. In divided Korea, young men had no chance to conceive that conscientious objection could be an integral part of their civil rights. Furthermore, the situation where student activists who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment were automatically exempted from the obligation of military service led them not to pay attention to conscientious objection.

In the southern part of divided Korea under the military dictatorship, conscientious objection was not the only human rights issue that was forgotten. The massacres of about one million civilians before and during the Korean War might be the most dangerous taboo. There were also leftist long-term prisoners who refused forcible ideological conversion and had to spent thirty or even forty years in jail without any contact with the outside world.

After the June Democratic Struggle of 1987, South Korean society underwent a transition to democracy. Although the transition is not satisfactory, the result is very precious. During the transition process, all these taboos began to be overcome because of the newly emerging human rights movement. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the human rights movement focused usually on political issues such as suspicious deaths, torture of political prisoners, illegal arrests, and violent suppression of rallies. From the late 1990s, the human rights movement began to broaden its scope to embrace the rights of minorities such as migrant workers, gays and lesbians, disabled people, and part time workers.

In 1999, the last 17 non-converted leftist prisoners were released. The non-converted leftist prisoners might have been the weakest minority group in Korean society under the hegemony of extreme anti-communism. However, society found that human rights were universal and should be applied for the “Reds,” too. This awakening to the universality of human rights was an important step in our society’s transition to democracy.

Many non-converted leftist prisoners were able to return to North Korea after the inter-Korean summit held in June 2000. The symbol of the backwardness of human rights conditions in Korea seemed to disappear. President Kim Dae Jung, a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, proudly declared that there were no prisoners of conscience in Korea, and that it had become an advanced country in terms of human rights.

It was at this time that the report about the sixteen hundred conscientious objectors was published. Jehovah’s Witnesses had been a target of joint attack from the statism and Christian fundamentalism that prevailed in anti-communist Korea. The new concern for the imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses therefore marked enhanced perception of the minority issue in society.

Quite curiously, it was conservative Christian leaders who were most vociferous in the intolerance of conscientious objectors. It shows a sharp contrast with the European experience, where conscientious objection was established in the tradition of Christian Pacifism. Korean Christianity started with a strong inclination toward patriotism and nationalism, and its expansion after 1945 owed much to the Korean War. Under the military dictatorship, many Christian leaders played important role in the democratization movement, but it was true that many more Christian leaders advocated dictatorship, anti-communism, and statism, as was best seen in the notorious Prayer Meeting for the national Leader. Since those who were persecuted because of conscientious objection were all Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were regarded as followers of heterodoxy by Christian fundamentalism, the attitude of the mainstream Christian leaders toward conscientious objection was stubbornly hostile. In the summer of 2001, two congressmen prepared an act to introduce an alternate service system to tolerate conscientious objectors. However, they abandoned their plan because of pressure from the Christian leaders.

Many Koreans, especially Christians, worry that recognition of the right of the conscientious objection would give a preference to heterodoxy. However, the issue of conscientious objection is not an issue related to heterodoxy, it is an issue related to citizens in general. The tolerance of conscientious objectors is not a preference. It only means a suspension of improper persecution by the state power against a certain religious sect. Furthermore, the issue of heterodoxy is not something that a modern state based on the principle of the separation of the religion and politics would intervene in.

Conservative Christians are not the only barrier for conscientious objection to overcome. Among ordinary Koreans, many people do not approve of it. Considering the anti-communist, statist, and militarist education that they have received, it is not surprising at all. Moreover, Korean males who spent about 3 years in military service have a strong sense of deprivation. In early 2000, the Constitutional Court ruled that the additional credits in the government employee exam offered to those who had fulfilled their military service were unconstitutional. This verdict was followed by fervent cyber terrors against the homepages of the Constitutional Court and feminist organizations. Names and phone numbers of some feminist activists were listed on porno sites by enraged machos. A similar happening occurred in 2001 when a feminist webzine based on Pusan University criticized the militarist and authoritative behavior of male students who had finished their military service.

Why do Korean males go crazy when military service becomes a focus of debate? To answer this question, we have to consider the situation of the conscription system in Korea. Supposedly, all males have to fulfill their duty of military service. However, only 70 percent of them actually serve as active soldiers. The length of the term is usually 26 months, a considerably long period of time. Active soldiers are paid $8-9 a month, or only 3 or 4 cents per hour. In Taiwan(Province of China), young males are also conscripted, but they are paid about $300 a month. The total payment to Korea’s conscripted soldiers for their services of 26 months is less then what their Taiwanese counterparts receive in a month.

In the Korean Army, beating is widespread. There is a joke that without being beaten, one could not sleep. Although the commanders repeatedly issue orders to prohibit beating, it does not disappear. The custom of beating became an integral part of daily life in the military in order to maintain discipline without any material and spiritual incentive for military service. The result of the widespread beating is many deaths and injuries. From 1980 to May 1995, 8,951 soldiers died even though there was no battle: among them 3,263 reportedly committed suicide and 387 were beaten to death. Every year, we lost 577 soldiers. Without a war, we lost a regiment every 4 or 5 years. During the Gulf War, the US lost 269 soldiers: 148 in battles and 121 in accidents. It shows the extremely high rate of casualties in the Korean Army. New mental patients in the army are about 5 thousand a year, about 2 percent of the conscripted soldiers. Desertion from barracks is also a serious problem. There are about 1500 runaway soldiers a year.

If the conditions for the military service are like what is mentioned above, it is quite natural that young males have a serious sense of deprivation. Among sons of upper class families, efforts to evade military service prevail. Borrowing from titles of famous films and novels, those who are exempted from military services are called “Son of God” or “Son of a General” those who fulfill their military services in the rear areas are called “on of Man,” while those who serve their duty at the front are called “Son of Darkness.” The destruction of equity in the conscription system is best symbolized in this cynical expression: the universal conscription system is replaced by the poor men’s conscription system.

The equity of military service has become an acute political issue. In the presidential election of 1997, the suspicion surrounding the exemption from military service of the two sons of the opposition party’s candidate Lee Hoi-chang became a crucial factor that determined the result of the election. Even the Chosun Ilbo, which represents the opinion of the extreme right wing, launched a campaign to rectify the problems with the current conscription system.

The conservatives and the Ministry of Defense assert that if the right of conscientious objection were granted, nobody would join the military to fulfill their duty of military service. However, it does not make sense to maintain the conscription system by not allowing conscientious objection. By introducing an alternate service system that recognizes the right to conscientious objection, the current conscription system would have a chance to reform itself and to alleviate the sense of deprivation that has caught those who have to spend 26 months in the military.

Conscientious objection in Korea is destined to become an acute issue because it challenges the statism and militarism that have dominated the Republic of Korea from its very beginning. The conscription system, which has remained untouchable for the past 50 years, should be rectified to reflect the progress of democracy, the maturing of civil society, economic development, and the reconciliation of South and North Korea.

In the world, 69 countries do not have a conscription system. Thirteen countries have a conscription system, but military service is practiced on a voluntary base. Thirty countries have an alternate service system alongside a conscription system. Only 48 countries have a conscription system without an alternate system. Among those 48 countries, however, no countries punishes conscientious objectors so harshly and so obstinately as Korea does.

Although Korea has been by far the leading country in punishing conscientious objectors, we can perceive new signs of change. On December 17, 2001, Mr. O Tae-yang, a 26 year-old Buddhist and pacifist, declared himself to be a conscientious objector. His declaration marked a turning point in Korea, showing that conscientious objection is beginning to spread beyond the Jehovah’s Witnesses. After his declaration, the Korean Solidarity for Conscientious Objectors was organized, including 34 leading human rights, peace, and civil organizations.

Meanwhile, the court also showed their rather tolerant attitude toward conscientious objectors. Usually conscientious objectors were immediately arrested as soon as they declared their resolution not to serve in the army. However, the court turned down the repeated requests of the prosecution to arrest Mr. O Tae-yang. The verdicts became generous, too. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the past were usually sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment after a very formal procedure that took merely 3 or 4 minutes. However, during the last 12 months, more than 80 percent of the convicted received an imprisonment of only 18 months. It was the minimum sentence that exempts them from military service. The tendency to give generous verdicts to conscientious objectors can also be found in the martial court. In January 2002, a judge appealed to the Constitutional Court that the Military Service Act, which does not allow any room for conscientious objectors, is unconstitutional.

The freedom of thought and the freedom of conscience are the innermost freedoms of human beings, and are those that constitute the basis of democracy. This innermost freedom, however, had been humiliated in divided Korea under the military dictatorship, as could be seen in the cases of the leftist long-term prisoners and the conscientious objectors. Now, Korea is regarded as a country that has achieved a considerable degree of transition to democracy. It is true that Korea is securing the external procedures of democracy. However, there is a gap. Freedom of conscience, the innermost freedom, is not fully respected yet. The result of the recent movement to recognize the right of conscientious objection will be a barometer that tells the degree of the maturity of Korean democracy.

Conscientious objection

Conscientious objectors

Jehovah’s Witnesses