3,400 South Korean Men Give Up Their Citizenship Yearly To Fulfill Military Duties

3,400 South Korean men will give up their citizenship yearly in order to fulfill their military duties.

According to the ruling Saenuri Party in South Korea, 3,400 men are sacrificing their citizenship annually to fulfill the mandatory military duties in the country. The government must also restrict their economic activities in the country for the mean time.

Based on the South Korean Conscription law, military service is applicable to all well-able and physically capable South Korean men ages 18-35 must serve in the military for two years. However, women can enroll in the Reserve Officers Training Corps but it is not mandatory for women. The law was enacted in the year 1965 under Chapter 2 Article 39 on the Republic of South Korea's Constitution.

However, there are exemptions for the military service such as: extreme medical conditions including those who donated organs, Those who are in poverty with less than 1.5 million won income and the sole provider to as family of 3 or with 2 disabled family members or with incurable disease, those who are imprisoned for more than 18 months, Those with master's degree in engineering, and athletes who win any medals at the Asian games or Olympic games.

Some athletes who have been granted by the military service exemption are the South Korean football team who won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in 2012, Park Tae-hwan who is a swimmer that trained for four weeks, and Hyeon Chung who is a tennis player won at the Asian Games in 2014.

From 2012 up to July this year, a total of 17,222 South Korean men gave up their nationality and subject to conscription according to the data arranged by Rep. Kim Joong-ro of Saenuri Party. South Korean men having Japanese, U.S., or Canadian citizens are included on those who are rejected to serve in the military.

Those South Korean men who decided to give up their nationality is composed of 31 family members of a high-ranking civil servants and the South Korean government must impose stricter policies regarding the ethnic South Koreans who holds foreign citizenship according to Representative of Saenuri Party, Kim Joong-ro.