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Conscientious objectors for religious reasons will be permitted to perform an alternative service starting 2009 at the earliest. They will serve at social welfare centers. But the Ministry of Defense said it will require conscientious objectors to serve for 36 months, double the time for conscripts, to ¡°ensure fairness.¡± The decision has sparked heated debate. The Korea Veterans' Association denounced it saying it will ¡°further encourage many young men to evade active-duty military service."
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Kwon Doo-hwan, the director general of the Defense Ministry's personnel planning bureau, said, "The ministry decided to allow conscientious objectors who refuse compulsory military service for religious reasons to carry out alternative duties. We will gather public opinion by conducting polls, holding public hearings and making policy presentations. We are going to implement this new policy as early as January 2009 after rewriting laws and regulations by the end of next year."
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Navy units practice a landing drill.
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The ministry is considering placing conscientious objectors in nine national special hospitals, including Sorokdo National Hospital in the Hansen¡¯s disease colony on Sorok Island in South Jeolla Province, mental hospitals and about 200 nursing homes for the elderly. Many in and outside the military wonder why the ministry abruptly changed its position on conscientious objectors. Until recently, it had maintained it was too early to introduce an alternative service system.
¡°The government's decision to introduce an alternative service is a serious matter that will undermine the foundation of compulsory military service,¡± the KVA said in a statement, vowing to ¡°wage a struggle¡± against it. But the progressive civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy welcomed the decision. ¡°We hope this will provide the opportunity to end the fruitless debate and find a solution to the issue through legislation."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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