A poet once wrote, “All Korean men were once soldiers.” Not quite so. When I joined the ROK Army in 1971, nearly half of the young Korean men my age managed to be exempted from mandatory military duty according to statistics released in later years. Those whose parents had money and power must have found a variety of ways to avoid the draft. 

Forty years have passed and many things have changed in Korea since then. Today, the Military Manpower Administration seems to draft every young man in this country, except for prize-winning athletes. It does not care about academically excellent people who have significantly enhanced the image of Korea overseas. According to the news, the MMA drafted even cancer patients until recently. These days, indeed, no one seems to be able to escape from the omnipresent eye of the MMA, which is determined to gather and send all available young men to boot camp.

And yet military duty remains a hot issue in Korean society because people still suspect that those with connections evade their obligations to serve the country as soldiers. Whenever election season comes, therefore, reporters mercilessly dig out the military history of not only the candidate himself, but also his sons. Some time ago, a presidential candidate was defeated in the elections after the opposition party disclosed that his two sons had been exempted from military duty.

Recently, a newspaper report disclosed the percentage of government employees who were exempted from their military duty. The Fair Trade Commission ranked at the top with 18 percent of its male employees exempted, followed by the MMA with 15.9 percent. Although there must be a variety of reasons for exemptions, the list did not seem “fair” at all. People expected that at least all of the male staff members at the MMA had fulfilled their military duty. Otherwise, how can they demand others to serve the country as soldiers?

The MMA drafts even U.S. citizens who have dual citizenship. Some time ago, the Seattle Post reported a preposterous case of a U.S. citizen who came to Korea on a work visa to teach English. To his surprise, he suddenly found himself drafted into the Korean Army against his wishes. He was born in the States and barely spoke Korean. And yet, the MMA heartlessly drafted him only because he held a dual citizenship he was not aware of; his grandfather had registered his name in Korea without his consent or knowledge. Local television channels in Seattle, too, reported this “nonsensical” story, saying, “A totally absurd thing happened in Korea.”

Currently, the Korean law does not allow a dual citizenship holder to give up his Korean citizenship unless he finishes his military duty. International lawyers argue, however, that such a policy is problematic, for it defies a person’s right to choose his nationality. If a dual citizenship holder chooses to work and live in Korea, then of course he should fulfill his military duty. If he chooses to live in the States, however, it is absurd to impose military duties on him.

People also point out that it is absurd to allow a Korean man holding a U.S. permanent resident card to be exempted from military duty. In fact, the green card holder’s nationality is still Korean and he carries a Korean passport. Why, then, is he exempted from his military duty, while a U.S. citizen living in the States and carrying a U.S. passport can be drafted simply because he happens to have a dual citizenship?

For the past few years, the MMA drafted thousands of U.S. citizens with dual citizenship who came to Korea as tourists, not knowing their fate. Once they walked into the trap, the MMA immediately requested that the immigration office suspend their departure until completion of their mandatory military duty. The immigration officers at the airport should have the decency to warn the dual citizenship holder of the possibility of being drafted upon entering the country, so that he can make a choice. Obviously, however, they are not thoughtful enough.

Moreover, the Korean government has just decided not to allow dual citizenship holders to be commissioned as military officers because they may pass military information onto the other country. But this is absurd as well, for most dual citizenship holders are U.S. citizens, and the United States is Korea’s ally, not enemy. Is it not pro-North Korean leftists, rather than dual citizenship holders, who may pass secret information into North Korea and thus should be prevented from becoming a commissioned officer? Indeed, a recent newspaper report disclosed that a group of leftist ROK army officers openly pledged their loyalty to Kim Jong-il’s regime and supported the communization of the Korean Peninsula.

Once again, we seem to be barking up the wrong tree, looking suspiciously at dual citizenship holders as potential national traitors. In this globalizing world, however, we should embrace them and encourage them to serve their country in many different ways.

By Kim Seong-kon 

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Press. ― Ed.