Conscientious objection in South Korea

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While the Republic of Korea's Constitution states that all citizens, regardless of gender, sex, political, or religious affiliation, should be afforded equal treatment under the law, some scholars, such as Intaek Hwang, claim that the culture of militarism is so pervasive that Conscientious Objectors are stripped of the rights discussed in the Constitution when universal male conscription became the law in 1948. [1] A Conscientious Objector is defined as "an individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience and or religion" by the United Nation's Human Rights Commission. [2] Since the signing of the Conscription Law in 1949, stating that every male 18 years of age must serve in the military, Conscientious Objectors, when found, are arrested and subject to violent punishments. [3]

Contents

Post 1949, there have been at least 400,000 Conscientious Objectors and draft evaders recorded and over 20,000 have been criminalized and subject to brutal treatment. [4] In South Korea, the majority of Conscientious Objectors are part of Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists. However, in the early 2000s, more men claimed to be a Conscientious Objector for their political ideologies, instead of religious affiliations. [5] While there is not an official list, there have been cases in which Conscientious Objectors have died because of their injuries sustained in prison. One such example is the case of three men, Chong-Sik Kim, Chung-Gil Lee, and Sang-Bok Jeong. Each of these men faced brutal beatings and starvation during their prison sentence, leading to their deaths in 1975 and 1976. [4]

Until the early 2000s the discourse about Conscientious Objectors amongst South Korean media outlets and political parties was scarce. The culture of militarism was pervasive amongst the government and civilians alike as the nation dealt with international wars and conflicts with North Korea. Post 2001, activists groups such as World Without Wars began fighting against the criminalization of Conscientious Objectors. [6] In November 2018, for the first time in South Korean history, the Constitutional Court ruled that the military must provide an alternative service to those who object to violence and released fifty seven imprisoned Conscientious Objectors. [7]

Timeline

Conscientious objectors movement

With the end of World War Two and the end of Japanese colonial rule in South Korea, the United States and the Soviet Union split Korea into two nations, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In 1948, the Constitution of the Republic of Korea was written and implemented, solidifying the right of freedom of consciousness and religion. However, South Korea had just escaped the traumatic and violent Japanese colonization, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and defensiveness. [10] Therefore, the government decided to create the Military Service Act, which established that all men must join the army to protect and serve the new nation.

When President Park Chung Hee was elected in 1963, he made it his mission to have a 100% conscription rate, meaning that every man beginning at age eighteen until age twenty-two had enlisted and served in the army. [4] In order to establish this, in 1971 President Park declared that South Korea was in a state of emergency, claiming that South Korea was vulnerable to North Korean invasion. President Park created systems to trap Conscientious Objectors, making it seemingly impossible to avoid military service. Park manufactured identification documents that could be checked by any government official at any time. [4] By establishing a comprehensive registry of citizens, Park was able to monitor who had completed their military service and who had not. He also ordered soldiers to raid Jehovah's Witnesses' churches to arrest eligible men who had avoided enlistment. To incentivize military service, President Park created employment opportunities specifically for veterans. While these practical systems proved effective, Park also shaped public perception of Conscientious Objectors by framing military service as a means to combat classism and promote equality. In a society already harboring disdain for draft evasion—fueled in part by the pervasive anxiety over a Northern invasion—Park's portrayal of Conscientious Objectors as opponents of equality and democracy further marginalized and silenced them. [4]

While internationally 80% of criminalized Conscientious Objectors reside in South Korea, the humanitarian issue of criminalizing Conscientious Objectors was not a heavily debated topic amongst the media in South Korea, rendering the debate stagnant whilst men served their sentences until 2001. Some scholars claim that this is because of the media attention growing activist groups gained. [5] World Without War was a particularly influential group of activists as they objected to Korean soldiers aiding the United States in the war in Iraq, adding to a group of individuals who claimed to be a Conscientious Objector based on their political beliefs, rather than because of religious affiliation. Currently, World Without Wars is meeting with other activist groups in the hope to further gain rights and protections for Conscientious Objectors. [11] The introduction of a feminist perspective not only included women in the conversation about conscientious objection but also challenged the militaristic proceedings of other activist groups and counter the hegemonic masculinity constructed and perpetuated by universal male conscription. [12]

Religious persecution

For years, Conscientious Objectors were considered a group of abnormal minority of religious people who chose the doctrine of the Church over the sanctity of the state. [13] This is largely due to the mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses for refusing to join the military and the criminalization of Seventh Day Adventists who refused to bear arms. [4] While both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists are Christian denominations, their relationship to conscription has differed. Both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists were imprisoned and treated inhumanely, however in the 1960s their sentencing was determined by different courts. In the 1960s Jehovah's Witnesses refused to even enlist in the army and were therefore tried in a civilian court whereas Seventh Day Adventists would enlist in the army but refuse to hold guns, and were therefore tried in military courts. [4] With President Park's changes in the 1970s however, both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists were tried in military courts, often facing longer and more violent punishments than if they were tried through the civilian courts. [4] Additionally, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses had a different relationship with the law and conscription. While the Seventh Day Adventists released a collective statement and appealed to the military and Constitutional Court to petition for legal objection to military service, Jehovah's Witnesses as a collective did not take legal action. [14] Further, Seventh Day Adventists criticized conscription as an act that was against the Church and therefore posed the Church against the State. On the other hand, Jehovah's Witnesses formulated conscientious objection as a matter of individual conscience.

Even before the Constitutional Court's decision of 2018, starting with a court in Seoul in 2004, some local courts had acquitted Jehovah's Witnesses and other religion-based conscientious objectors on the basis of the constitutional principle of religious liberty. [13]

Criminalization of dissent

Feminist scholars and activist groups criticize President Park's means of obtaining a one hundred percent conscription rate, as he created the means to criminalize men who deviated from the hegemonic masculine ideal President Park propagated. Through his fear tactics, President Park painted Conscientious Objectors as possible spies or communists. [4] Further, the propaganda released supporting conscription ensures that being a part of the military is a critical aspect of South Korean men's identity and idea of masculinity that is then legally solidified by the Military Service Act. [4] In the fight against Conscientious Objectors, both the public and the government criminalized deviance from the status quo. The pervasiveness of militarism creates a cause and effect relationship between protecting conscription and arresting Conscientious Objectors. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conscription</span> Compulsory enrollment into national or military service

Conscription, also known as the draft in American English, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conscientious objector</span> Person refusing military service on moral grounds

A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–industrial complex due to a crisis of conscience. In some countries, conscientious objectors are assigned to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conscription crisis</span> Public dispute about a policy of conscription

A conscription crisis is a public dispute about a policy of conscription, or mandatory service in the military, known in US English as a "draft". A dispute can become a crisis when submission to military service becomes highly controversial and popular revolt ensues. From the point of view of military officials, the crisis is one of supply; where they may claim to lack enough troops to accomplish a military objective, and have, to some degree, lost control of their political ability to enforce existing conscription law.

Peace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism or Biblical nonresistance. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military service</span> Performing the service in the armed forces of a state

Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conscription in the United States</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compulsory military training in New Zealand</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">End Conscription Campaign</span> Anti-apartheid organization allied to the United Democratic Front

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical Cadet Corps</span> Seventh-day Adventist Church medical training organization

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Halil Savda is a Turkish conscientious objector who has been subjected to continued arrest and conviction for his refusal to serve mandatory military service – in violation of Turkish law.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative civilian service</span> Alternative to military service in countries with military conscription

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The Constitution of Armenia as amended in December 2005 provides for freedom of religion; however, the law places some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of minority religious groups, and there were some restrictions in practice. The Armenian Apostolic Church, which has formal legal status as the national church, enjoys some privileges not available to other religious groups. Some denominations reported occasional discrimination by mid- or low-level government officials but found high-level officials to be tolerant. Jehovah's Witnesses reported that judges sentenced them to longer prison terms for evasion of alternative military service than in the past, although the sentences were still within the range allowed by law. Societal attitudes toward some minority religious groups were ambivalent, and there were reports of societal discrimination directed against members of these groups.

A construction soldier was a non-combat role of the National People's Army, the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic, from 1964 to 1990. Bausoldaten were conscientious objectors who accepted conscription but refused armed service and instead served in unarmed construction units. Bausoldaten were the only legal form of conscientious objection in the Warsaw Pact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond Sixteen</span> Group of "absolutist" English conscientious objectors during the First World War

The Richmond Sixteen were a group of "absolutist" British conscientious objectors during the First World War. Conscripted into the British Army in 1916, they refused to undertake even non-combatant military duties. Brought together at Richmond Castle, Yorkshire, most not knowing each other previously, they were transported to France, where they were court-martialled and formally sentenced to be executed by firing squad, but this sentence was immediately commuted to ten years' penal servitude. They were released in April 1919, several months after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and a few weeks before the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insubordinate movement in Spain</span> Antimilitarist movement in Spain

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South Korean military laws and procedures discriminate against sexual minorities, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals, who serve in the military. At the time of enlistment, recruits are categorized based on their physical and mental health. Sexual minorities can be marked as having a “mental handicap” or “personality disorder,” which determines their status and duties as personnel. They can also be institutionalized in a mental facility or be dishonorably discharged. Military personnel have reported experiencing harassment, violence, and forcible revealing of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

References

  1. 1 2 Hwang, Ihntaek (2018-09-02). "Militarising National Security through Criminalisation of Conscientious Objectors to Conscription in South Korea". Critical Studies on Security. 6 (3): 296–311. doi:10.1080/21624887.2018.1424986. ISSN   2162-4887. S2CID   158920768.
  2. ↑ "OHCHR | Conscientious objection to military service". www.ohchr.org. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  3. ↑ "Statutes of the Republic of Korea". elaw.klri.re.kr. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jung, Youngoh (2014). "The Normalization of Universal Male Conscription in South Korean Society and the State Regulation of Draft Evasion and Conscientious Objection: 1950–1993". Trans-Humanities Journal. 7 (3): 125–161. doi:10.1353/trh.2014.0006. ISSN   2383-9899. S2CID   146566198.
  5. 1 2 Vladimir, Tikhonov (March 16, 2009). "Militarism and Anti-militarism in South Korea: "Militarized Masculinity" and the Conscientious Objector Movement". Asia-Pacific Journal. 7 (12).
  6. ↑ "Featured affiliate: World Without War, South Korea". War Resisters' International. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  7. ↑ "South Korea releases 57 conscientious objectors after landmark ruling on military service". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  8. ↑ "South Korea to pardon 1,800 conscientious objectors". BBC News. 30 December 2019.
  9. ↑ "South Korea's Conscientious Objectors Are Getting an Alternative to Military Service".
  10. ↑ Kwon, Insook (2013). "Gender, Feminism and Masculinity in Anti-Militarism". International Feminist Journal of Politics. 15 (2): 213–233. doi:10.1080/14616742.2012.724209. ISSN   1461-6742. S2CID   142271412.
  11. ↑ Lee, Yongsuk (February 26, 2019). "After Historic Breakthrough, Conscientious Objectors Face New Challenges in South Korea". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  12. ↑ Bamidele, Oluwaseun (2014-06-15). "Cynthia Cockburn, Anti-militarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements. Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 297pp". Nations and Nationalism. 20 (3): 590–592. doi:10.1111/nana.12079_5. ISSN   1354-5078.
  13. 1 2 Yoo, Kwang Suk (September 15, 2018). "Expansion of Religious Pluralism in Korean Civil Society: A Case Study of Conscientious Objection in South Korea". Religions. 9 (11): 326. doi: 10.3390/rel9110326 .
  14. ↑ Mun, Soo-Hyun (December 2012). "An Analysis of the Debate over Conscientious Objection in Korea". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
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