Korea, South

Back to table of contents By Jungmin Choi, Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights

Work against war profiteering has emerged in South Korea in recent years. An important step in its development was the 2010 Peace and Disarmament Fair, which took place between the 2nd and 3rd of October, organised by the Peace and Disarmament Fair Preparatory Committee.

On 14 April 2010, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations ruled on 11 more cases of conscientious objectors, which had been submitted on 15 May 2007, following the first ground-breaking ruling of the Human Rights Committee from November 2006 (see CO-Update No 27, February 2007). In line with its earlier decision, the Human Rights Committee came to the following conclusion:

Human Rights Committee
Ninety-eighth session
8 to 26 March 2010

Views

Communications Nos. 1593 to 1603/2007

Submitted by:
Messrs. Eu-min Jung, Tae-Yang Oh, Chang-Geun Yeom, Dong-hyuk Nah, Ho-Gun Yu, Chi-yun Lim, Choi Jin, Tae-hoon Lim, Sung-hwan Lim, Jae-sung Lim, and Dong-ju Goh.
(represented by counsel Jea-Chang Oh of Haemaru Law Offices)
The authors

The Republic of Korea

15 May 2007 (initial submissions)

Special Rapporteur’s rule 97 decision, transmitted to the State party on 5 October 2007
(not issued in document form)

23 March 2010

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration of South Korea[1], the total turnover of arms exports by South Korea exceeded 1 billion dollars in 2008. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration of Korea plans to raise this figure to 1.5 billion dollars by 2015, expecting to become one of the world's top ten arms exporting countries by 2012. The alleged arguement that South Korea should deter the North from provoking a war works as an excuse for spending huge amounts of money on the arms industry.

A South Korean judge again filed a petition with the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the country's Military Service Act in the case of a conscientious objector who refused military service, JoongAng Daily reported on 10 September 2009.

South Korea was War Resisters' International's focus for International Conscientious Objection Day 2009 - 15 May. Jointly with the Korean organisations Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection (KSCO) and World Without War (WWW), WRI had organised an international meeting and training of conscientious objectors in Seoul, with participants from Eritrea, Germany, Finland, Macedonia, Israel, Puerto Rico, Spain, and South Korea.

International Conscientious Objectors' Day is observed around the world on 15th of May. It has been observed with nonviolent actions since 1986. This year the focus of the day is on South Korean conscientious objectors' (CO) poor human rights situation. International Conscientious Objectors' Day is organized by War Resisters' International (WRI) and its affiliated organizations.
 South Korea does not recognise the right to conscientious objection. Objectors to military service are sentenced to 18 months in prison. On March 31st , 458 COs were serving their sentences.


I have an American friend who used to stay in Korea a few years ago. And I remember once he said to me that his family in the USA would often tell him to come back before a war would happen between North and South Korea. After hearing what his family said to him, I realised that people outside Korea thought about a war or a military tension even more than the people living in Korea did. (...)

To be liberated or to be incarcerated? It is an unavoidably acute question. The world we live in, at the global level, is constantly at war. Not surprisingly, as of the beginning of January 2009, we can see the war currently continuing in Gaza. The 20th century is remembered as an age of wars and presumably so will be the 21st. The US government started the 'war on terror' against Iraq after the 11 September attacks. The Iraq war was nothing but another dreadful war. Not only were the nation state of Iraq and the terrorists deemed to be enemies of the US, but the US clearly declared this was a war against evil. Clarifying who is evil requires great care.

On 1 December 1 2005, I called a press conference to declare my conscientious objection to military service, with two other conscientious objectors. Since I became active in a university student movement, I had been thinking of becoming a conscientious objector, not as a pacifist but as a radical statement of resistance to the State. Interestingly enough, only after my decision to become a conscientious objector did I begin to try to live as a pacifist.

I participated in student movements during my college years. That experience influenced me even after I graduated, and I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a soldier loyal to his country. I not only found it difficult to follow orders from any superior without questioning, but was most afraid of the forceful and violent nature of the military culture that builds up the sense of hierarchy.