As South Korea faces a military manpower shortage due to its low birth rate issue, opinions have emerged suggesting the recruitment of women or the male individuals aged 55 to 75 to fill the gap. However, public opinion in Korea remains divided on these proposals, and debates surrounding military service are expected to continue.
Choi Young-jin, a professor of Political Science and International Relations at Chung-Ang University, criticized the policy of women’s military service in a column contributed to Hankyoreh on Jan. 31. He argued that it is not a solution for a country that needs to focus all its efforts on increasing the birth rate.
Previously, the New Reform Party, under the leadership of Lee Jun-seok, announced that they plan to implement a policy that would require women to serve in the military as early as 2030 if they wish to become police or fire service officers.
Choi argued that women’s military service is not the most efficient solution to address the manpower shortage. According to him, to secure 10,000-20,000 military resources, the government would have to allocate a budget ten times more than the current level. Choi also criticized that advocating for women’s military service under the pretext of gender equality is a narrow perception of the world.
Choi suggested that there is a simpler and more effective solution to the problem of manpower shortage, which is to conscript healthy senior citizens who are willing to volunteer for service. He pointed out that there are currently around 6.91 million men between the ages of 55 and 75 in S. Korea, and a significant number of them are prepared to join the army again for the country.
“If 1% of the 6.91 million volunteers, we could secure about 70,000 in reserve forces. We could even easily mobilize 200,000-300,000, if we pay them as much as the current soldiers,” said Choi.