As South Korea reacts to President Yoon Suk Yeo’s unexpected attempt to impose martial law, Europe should learn lessons from recent Korean missteps in defence policy—not least South Korean military conscription.
A young man in South Korea was just sentenced to two years in jail. His crime? A poor diet. South Korea’s conscription policy requires able-bodied young men to serve for at least 18 months in the military. Korean draft authorities grew suspicious of this man’s sudden weight gain just before his assessment, suspecting him of deliberately eating unhealthily in order to avoid signing up on grounds of obesity. The draft dodger, wracked with guilt, confessed to deliberately packing on the pounds to avoid conscription, implicating his friend who coached him on the binge-eating and masterminded the entire scheme. The accomplice was sentenced to six months in jail, while the future soldier was allowed to escape his prison sentence if he did his time in the army after all.
