Army service to be kept at 21 months

By Jung Sung-ki The Ministry of National Defense has decided to put a halt to a reduction of the Army’s mandatory military service period to 18 months, and instead keep it at 21 months, a ministry official said Monday. The service period for the Navy and Air Force will also remain at 23 and 24 months, respectively, the official said, adding the plan will be approved during next week’s Cabinet meeting. The move comes amid growing calls to strengthen the nation’s defense readiness against North Korean provocations. On Nov. 23, the North fired about 170 artillery shells and rockets at one of South Korea’s five islands near the volatile West Sea border, killing two marines and two civilians. Earlier this month, an ad hoc panel on defense reform measures proposed to Cheong Wa Dae that service periods of the Army, Navy and Air Force should revert back to 24 months. But Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and other government officials shared the view that such a move could provoke a public backlash. “Final approval will be given next week, but the Ministry of National Defense has made a decision on the 21-month service period,” said the official. The previous Roh Moo-hyun government reduced the Army conscription period from 26 months to 24 months and then set in motion another reduction to 18 months by 2014. The service periods for the Navy and Air Force were also to be shortened incrementally by six months to 20 and 21 months, respectively. The liberal administration believed such a move would maximize the use of manpower as the country’s population ages and birthrates remain low. But critics have argued that this overlooked the seriousness of North Korean threats as well as a potential manpower shortage in the military amid budgetary shortfalls. Bruce Bennett, a senior analyst at the U.S.-based RAND Corporation, said, “Reducing the conscription period from 26 to 18 months could cut the number of the ROK conscripts by 31 percent, or the overall size of the ROK military by about 24 percent since it would not affect the number of officers or NCOs.” He said Korea’s birthrates have fallen seriously since the 1970s, and as a result, only 318,000 young Korean men turned conscription age in 2008. “This reduction in the pool of young men has meant that the ROK military has been decreasing in size. More seriously, these reductions will continue in the future after a rebound around 2014,” he said. Statistics Korea says that 312,000 young men will turn conscription age in 2020, 223,000 in 2025, and 215,000 in 2030.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr