A South Korean soldier stands guard next to a military fence as members of South Korea's Defence Ministry recovery team work on recovering the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Cheorwon, South Korea October 25, 2018. [Photo/Agencies] SEOUL - South Korea's supreme court ruled on Thursday that moral and religious beliefs are valid reasons to refuse the country's mandatory military service, in a case that has implications for hundreds of conscientious objectors. Almost 65 years after the end of the Korean War, nearly every able-bodied South Korean male between the ages of 18 and 35 must still complete around two years of military service. Anyone refusing the call-up has usually ended up in prison for 18 months, and more than 19,000 conscientious objectors have been jailed since 1950, most of them Jehovah's Witnesses. But the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a conscientious objector on Thursday, months after a landmark constitutional court ruling that authorities had to provide an alternative to joining the military. At the center of Thursday's case is Jehovah's Witness Oh Seung-hun, who was called up in 2013 but refused, was found guilty, and lost an initial appeal to the high court. It is the majority opinion of the supreme court that conscientious objection is... a valid reason (to refuse conscription), said chief Supreme Court justice Kim Myeong-su. Punishing conscientious objectors for refusing conscription on grounds of religious faith, in other words, freedom of conscience, is deemed an excessive constraint to an individual's freedom of conscience, he added. The decision, by a majority of nine votes to four, overturned a previous Supreme Court ruling 14 years ago. Oh, 34, said he had refused to join the military as doing so went against biblical teaching. The bible says that everyone who uses a sword will be killed by a sword, Oh said. I expected to suffer for objecting to conscription but I thought the pain I would feel by not listening to my inner voice would be far worse. Jehovah's Witnesses welcomed the ruling, calling it a huge step forward in ending this policy of imprisoning our fellow believers. Today the Supreme Court has brought South Korea more in line with international norms, said spokesman Paul Gillies. According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, more than 900 similar cases are pending in the South Korean justice system, with another 96 people currently serving prison terms for not fulfilling their duties. Seoul's armed forces rely heavily on conscription, and the social implications of the South's military service are also enormous - men must interrupt or delay either their education or their careers to comply, with Tottenham striker Son Heung-min a high-profile recent example. He only secured an exemption - avoiding a potentially ruinous career break - by winning gold at this year's Asian Games in Indonesia. Agence France-presse silicone wristbands custompersonalized rubber braceletsrubber wristbands for eventsbracelets for a causeevent wristbands
Unified inspection standards expected to coordinate various military unitsThe People's Liberation Army has published its first regulation governing military training, a move observers said will effectively boost the PLA's combat capabilities.The regulation was signed by President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, and will take effect on March 1, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.The report said the regulation is the first of its kind for the Chinese military. It aims to improve training inspections and ensure that PLA units focus on combat capability, the report said.The regulation's 10 chapters and 61 clauses specify the duties and major tasks of training inspectors and prescribe the proper procedures and methods of inspection.Wu Peixin, a military observer in Beijing, said the regulation is expected to enable the PLA to better supervise units' training."Currently, the training of PLA units is examined and supervised by higher authorities, mainly based on those authorities' own rules, which are more or less different from each other," he said. "With the regulation, training will be organized and supervised with a unified set of standards, so it will be improved."Wu said the regulation stresses the importance of combat capability and urges units to make training as realistic as possible. Its implementation will help to build a stronger and more battle-ready PLA, he said.A military observer in Shanghai, who asked to be identified as Yang, said the PLA has put combat-ready exercises and joint operation capabilities at the top of its agenda, so it needs a regulation to make sure all forces conduct training in accordance with strict, unified standards.Xi has repeatedly ordered the military to improve its training so that it can fight and win a modern war.At a Central Military Commission conference in Beijing in early January, he urged the military to be fully aware of the nation's security and development trends; to strengthen the troops' awareness of crises, challenges and combat; and to make comprehensive preparations for military operations.Xi told the meeting that the armed forces must focus on improving their combat capabilities, and that whatever they do must align with that objective.
