Military service in Korea

"Military service is an obligation for every Korean man whose body functions are not limited by any physical disabilities or whose mental status is not unstable or potentially dangerous. So that means, almost everybody. But just because it is mandatory for everyone, it doesn't mean that it's easy. 


It lates 2 years, and even after, Korean men have to do an annual  call up.

Then, what happens to a boy when they go to the army?

First, they have to quit school or work temporarily, and select a date on which they will go. They can also apply for special positions such as the Navy, the Air Force, or the augmentation troop to the USA army, but much depends on luck and most of them end up serving in the Army(600,000 soldiers nationwide). After the basic physical training of four weeks at one of the few training base camps, they are dispatched to their respective units where they will serve for the remainder of the period, which is also where they will meet their dreaded senior soldiers. Haha. And this is where it all really begins. There's a million different stories for a million different soldiers. Nobody experiences the same thing, but what's in common is that they learn to reallyappreciate they had before - school, work, family, girlfriends, friends, 'paid' part-time jobs, and more than anything else, 'free time'.

But the Korean Army is changing a lot recently, becoming a more democratic and open-minded environment for young soldiers to develop themselves as well as defend the country, and the salary has shown an incredible increase from something like 10 dollars a month when I was a private soldier first class to more then 40 dollars now. Isn't that amazing? :D

I'm writing this for those of you who are wondering about the miliary service in Korea and who might be thinking "why are all the soldiers so young and why do they have solittle discipline when I see them walking outside?" It's because they are having the time of their life, out on a paid leave to enjoy the best of their free time for anything from 2 days to 1 week"

(Cf: http://localkorea.blogspot.com/search/label/military%20service)


Here on the pictures is my Roomate : Baek in military uniform