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SEOUL: As a devout Jehovah’s Witness, Jang Kyung-jin was ready to be imprisoned instead of serving in the South Korean military. After a landmark court ruling, he will head to prison on Monday (October 26), but as a civil administrator, not as a convict.
The South is technically still at war with the North and maintains a mandatory conscription system to defend itself against Pyongyang’s 1.2 million army.
All healthy men in South Korea are required to serve for 18 months before they turn 30, in a rite of passage that, although sometimes suffered, can form lifelong bonds with their fellow soldiers.
Avoiding duty in a conformist society faced with the world’s last remaining Cold War conflict can bring with it lifelong employment consequences and social stigma, similar to the UK’s “white feather” campaign of the First World War.
But over the decades, tens of thousands of conscientious objectors, many of them Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been willing to pay that price, and a prison sentence of 18 months or more, to adhere to their religious or moral beliefs. .
Jang Kyung-jin is a conscientious objector to military service. (Photo: AFP / Jung Yeon-je)
“As a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I believe it is my duty to interpret the Bible as it is written and to follow the teachings of Jesus,” Jang, a father of three, told AFP.
A soft-spoken traditional medicine practitioner quoted Matthew 26:52, where Jesus tells his disciples not to use force to defend him because “All who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
“It would have been the highest form of honorable act to defend the son of God, but Jesus told his disciples no … I have come to the conclusion that violence could never be justified under any circumstances.”
For years, the idea of a civilian alternative to military service for conscientious objectors was highly controversial.
But current President Moon Jae-in, who served in the special forces when he was a conscript in the 1970s, promised to create one during his 2017 election campaign.
The following year, the Southern Supreme Court ruled that moral and religious objections were valid reasons for rejecting military service.
The alternative service scheme will take effect on Monday, when Jang and 62 other conscientious objectors will report to a training center in Daejeon, south of Seoul, to serve three years as correctional facilities administrators.
They will be entitled to the same pay as regular recruits and the Justice Ministry described the plan as a “first step towards balancing conscience and military duty.”
36,000 YEARS
Apart from Olympic medalists and Asian Games champions, along with the winners of some international classical music competitions, the military obligation applies to all healthy men and can mean interruptions and delays in the race.
It currently looms over the seven members of global K-pop sensation BTS, who are estimated to contribute billions of dollars to the world’s twelfth largest economy.
Steve Yoo, a very popular singer at the top of the charts in the 1990s, obtained American citizenship shortly before being called up, automatically losing his Korean nationality and with it the obligation to serve.
The move sparked widespread public anger and authorities quickly barred him from entering the country, a measure that remains in effect to this day.
South Korea remains technically at war with the North and maintains a mandatory enlistment system to defend itself against Pyongyang’s 1.2 million army. (Photo: AFP / Jung Yeon-je)
Throughout the world, Jehovah’s Witnesses are perhaps best known for their enthusiastic members who preach on street corners and knock on doors in their conversion efforts and refuse to receive blood transfusions.
But in the south it is their refusal to serve in uniform or pledge allegiance to a national flag that most sets them apart.
No fewer than 19,353 church members have been punished for refusing to serve since 1950, spending a combined total of more than 36,000 years behind bars, according to the church.
Among the former prisoners is Lee Bit-nam, a member of Jang’s congregation, who was jailed in 2015 but, like all other conscientious objectors, his conviction record has been expunged as a result of the court ruling.
A 30-year-old auto mechanic said he was repeatedly ridiculed by guards and fellow inmates for refusing to serve, but he never doubted his decision.
“In the Bible, one of the most important things God teaches us is love,” he said. “I realized that God does not want us to dedicate ourselves to practice for war or war itself.
“My faith only got stronger the more I read the Bible.”
