South Korean man convicted for deliberately gaining weight to evade military service
A South Korean man has been sentenced to a suspended prison term for deliberately gaining weight to evade military service.
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The headline leaves out some key details. It looks like he did this to avoid a promotion, specifically. Meaning that he was already enlisted, and gave up a lot of rights that a civilian would otherwise have. The article doesn't make it clear if the same sort of conviction could be applied to a civilian trying to dodge the draft.
EDIT: The article has been updated and no longer seems to refer to the person receiving a promotion, and it appears he was always a civilian.
More like a choice between essentially community service and actual military duties.
I normally don’t comment, but this is completely incorrect. What happened here is that the Korean conscription system separates people into four levels of eligibility depending on health and other factors. IIRC, category 1 and 2 are healthy enough for active duty, 3 is borderline, and 4 is not fit for active duty. This person would have been in a active duty category, but gained weight in order to dodge active duty and either get conscription waived or do alternative service such as public service. This person was not already active duty, but got his conscription notice.
Edit: It’s actually worse. He previously took his medical evaluation and was deemed fit for active duty (either category 1 or 2) and was waiting for an enlistment date (apparently it’s actually hard to get an open spot for military service these days). In that time, he allegedly deliberately gained weight so that when the day came and he had to redo his physical, he would be able to dodge active duty.
I normally don’t comment
I'm glad you did, I appreciate your insight on the subject! It looks like the article may have been updated since I originally read it, as it no longer refers to a promotion like I saw earlier. That's a lot more concerning, to know that he was still a civilian the whole time. I feel like that sets a dangerous precedent that would be very easy to abuse.
Yeah, IIRC stuff like this has happened often before. One example that comes to mind was a celebrity getting their teeth removed to get deemed not fit for active duty.
My personal opinion is that these people probably wouldn’t be mentally fit for active duty anyways.
Meaning that he was already enlisted, and gave up a lot of rights that a civilian would otherwise have.
South Korea used to jail and abuse people who objected to compulsory military service and nowadays just treats them like shit. This guy tried to eat his way into doing community service instead of being an active duty soldier and he got jailed for it. I would say that tracks as abuse against objectors. I wouldn't say he was avoiding a "promotion."