Korean Men: Mandatory Military Service (Korea Deconstructed #60) 

I'm Korean born and raised in Korea for my entire life, I literally perceive this whole mandatory military system as a bullshit and a national crime inflicted on their own citizens under the propaganda "You're a true Korean man, you should serve for your military" or "It's a sacred obligation" etc.. getting enlisted at a very young age, you haven't really grown up, it's been only about one or two years since you graduated high school and you're just having an "adult" life at university and all of sudden the country just drags your ass into a isolated shithole. you get paid less than the minimum wage even though you're not there by choice and ricking your life and they treat their soldiers like disposable plastic bags. It's just too much for young males to carry on their shoulders. I believe there's no good in conscription system but only toxic for males and the country itself. they enlist people at the ages where they're the brightest with studying and it makes it tardy for them to enter the world and make money, i mean look at what other younger males in other countries do at the ages where korean ones serve, they graduate uni sooner and start making money already, so it can definitely affect the whole economy growth because military holds up people's life like that. also it's a problem that most soldiers serving right now got no any patriotism and the spirit that soldiers are supposed to have, no wonder because they're drafted!!. now the dudes at military they say this a lot "I don't fuxking care about the country, once things go down i'm out screw it" literally zero morale. I'd also run the f away cuz it's not worth it to die for a country that doesn't respect you. Now all the frustration and anger about this bullshit system is all toward female citizens as men are more becoming more woke with the idea that it's unfair that men are only subject to this time consuming shit. actually i'm a person who thinks we also have to shave their hair like a smooth rock and have them also serve, not that i resent women but now we don't have enough men to serve (honestly i'm not sure if sustaining that high number of troops really matters at this point where all you do is just press buttons to launch missiles) so why not make women serve rather than stop talking nonsense "oh we got no dudes to serve, so we gonna just enlist physically mentally ill males too haha" and also the argument that women are not strong enough is crap, i mean half of the dudes i met at the bootcamp were looking like ill chickens dying of flu or something but they manage through it somehow!! so why can't women do the same? and the respect for soldiers definitely needs to be there. like girls my age, they don't give a fuck, they don't really seem thankful or aware of who makes it possible for them to go out every day and have a nice warm coffee at Starbucks chit chatting about trivial bullshits that ain't nobody cares while boys are literally working their ass off to protect people that don't care about you. it is a total waste of time, you learned things yes, but you can learn things too in the outside world without much stress and risking your life i just wanna say to people who are watching this and are supposed to serve that if you have the kind of environment where you can choose not to go then please don't. you're gonna def regret it

In the early part of this video, they talked about the tattoo issue in the enlistment phase. The tattoo was a real issue when I served in the army during 2008-2010. For example, in the boot camp, some training instructors were concerned whether some of my colleagues with tattoos were members of a criminal organisation. The reason was that the tattoo culture was so common among South Korean gangsters during 70s, 80, and 90s because they were heavily influenced by their colleagues in Japan. So having a tattoo of dragons or tigers covering large portions of the body might have meant that the guy was a gangster member, who is considered as a potential troublemaker in a highly stressful society like the army. But tattoo culture declined in South Korean gangs while became popular among younger generations. So it seems that the Military Manpower Administration does not take tattoos as a serious issue anymore.

Thank you for these interviews. I am very curious what the life is like in their military. I am American. My grandson was stationed on an American military base there around 5 years ago. TBH it is definitely because I enjoy entertainment that has had their members having to interrupt careers to comply w Conscription. I follow the World news now bc it affects their lives & tensions are higher now for them. I’ve wondered what positive changes they have been able to influence by their having the status they have to speak up and paid attention to. Also as I understand it that after Consription the soldiers are automatically in the reserves and will be called back into service if the worst happens and they are needed regardless of what is going on in their civilian life. Which is understandable since time and money was spent on their training and they would want to protect their own families and country. Prayers for peace. 💜

It's interesting to see how their conscription compares to that done in Singapore, where people with mental/phyiscal illnesses can also be given more 'office-like' work. Thank you for including Inu's face as well lol : D

Would you be kind and do a Video about Buddy Enlistment? Thank you!