{"id":39347,"date":"2014-01-17T06:42:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T11:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=39347"},"modified":"2014-01-17T06:42:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T11:42:25","slug":"draft-dodgers-in-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=39347","title":{"rendered":"Draft dodgers in South Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you out there who think that draft is the answer to the problems facing national security as service in our all-volunteer military becomes less attractive, this look at South Korea’s conscription woes in the Stars & Stripes<\/a> might alter your perception;<\/p>\n

South Korea is better known for its catchy K-pop songs, tech-savviness and economic growth than it is for the more than 17,500 conscientious objectors who have been imprisoned since 1950. Most are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who number about 100,000 in this country of 50 million and often face stigma in its largely conformist society.<\/p>\n

More than 50 men have refused to serve in the past decade because of nonreligious personal beliefs or political reasons, including 25-year-old Kim Dong Hyun.<\/p>\n

“Right now, I only have two choices: military or prison. Of the two, I think prison is the more peaceful choice,” Kim said. “At least in prison I don’t have to train to kill.”<\/p>\n

Kim, like Jeon, was sentenced to 18 months, which today is a typical sentence for conscientious objectors in South Korea. Under South Korea’s military-backed dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, imprisonment lasted up to seven years.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Human Rights Committee criticizes South Korea for not recognizing conscientious objectors and failing to give them alternatives to military service- a violation of freedom of thought, conscience and religion recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is in a country whose main threat is just across a thin strip of fenced and mine-laden earth and has a history of incursions into South Korea. Imagine trying to maintain a trained standing Army in the US among the lazy and irresponsible pool of draft-aged men and women. Our jails would be packed with draft dodgers, no room for the thugs.<\/p>\n

Our draft system has already been corrupted by the Jimmy Carter Administration when he gave blanket amnesty to all of the draft dodgers of the Vietnam Era, then a few years later, reinstated draft registration. Carter insured that a draft will never work again here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you out there who think that draft is the answer to the problems … Draft dodgers in South Korea<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jimmy-carter","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}