Military Service

[Anchor Lead]

The government has decided to strengthen regulations on Korean citizens who try to avoid military service by changing their citizenship. The Military Manpower Administration is considering permanently banning citizenship recovery for those who are over 30 and had renounced their Korean nationality before completing their military service. It is also pushing for imposing restrictions on issuing Korean visas and work permits to overseas Koreans.

[Pkg]

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin was exempted from military service in Korea due to his Japanese nationality. But after turning 41, the maximum age for compulsory military service, he recovered his Korean citizenship.

[Soundbite] Shin Dong-bin(Chairman, Lotte Group (Sept. 17, 2015)) : "(When Korea and Japan face off in soccer, do you cheer on Team Korea?) I am still learning hard. I'm sorry."

Some four to five thousand people in the nation renounce their Korean citizenship every year to avoid conscription.

[Soundbite] Lee Soo-hoon (Presidential Special Advisory Committee) : "I can't stop wondering if people with authority continue to enjoy this privilege of conscription exemption."

In its government report made on June 15, the Military Manpower Administration said that it will push for the amendment of the Nationality Act so that people who renounce their Korean nationality for the purpose of avoiding conscription are banned from recovering their nationality after age 30. Under the current Nationality Law, restrictions on recovering Korean nationality are only imposed when there is evidence of avoidance of military service. But once the law is revised, the ban on citizenship recovery will apply regardless of whether or not a person attempted to avoid conscription. The administration also seeks to impose restrictions on issuing Korean visas to overseas Koreans until the age of 41, the maximum limit for military service, and ban work permits for them until they turn 37. The proposed measures will likely take effect soon, as the president's special advisory committee appears to agree with them.