Many Draft Dodgers Lie Low Abroad

Over the past five years, 606 young men have been reported to the Military Manpower Administration for intentionally staying overseas for long periods to dodge draft, a lawmaker said Friday.

Ahn Gyu-baek of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy on the National Assembly Defense Committee cited MMA data saying that there were 72 suspected draft dodgers in foreign countries in 2010, but the figure more than doubled in three years to reach 166 last year.

Some 120 suspected draft dodgers were living abroad as of late September this year. The vast majority are in the U.S., Australia, and Canada.

Most are in their late 20s and early 30s. "All the information suggests that most of them are the offspring of wealthy families and fail to return after going abroad for studying at an early age," Ahn said.

A mere 6 percent of them later fulfilled their mandatory military service.

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