Compulsory Military Service
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The eight K-pop boy band idols that fans can’t wait to see return from military service in 2017 Super Junior, TVXQ and JYJ will be bolstered by stars completing their time in military
A new year has just kicked off and it will be a great year for K-pop fans, who have long awaited the return of some of South Korea’s top male celebrities from compulsory military service. Many male celebrities are wary of enlistment, fearing their fans will forget them while they are out of the spotlight. For some, though, military service has been a boon; actors Song Joong-ki (Descendants of the Sun) and Yoo Seung-ho (Remember - War of the Son) shed their boyish image in fatigues and were able to take on more mature roles when they returned from military service. Eight celebrities will complete their service this year. The first to return will be singer-actor Kim Hyun-joong. Kim enlisted in May 2015, and served in a border patrol at Paju, in Gyeonggi province. He is set to return to the screen in February and will draw a lot of media attention due to an ongoing legal battle with his ex-girlfriend. She sued him for 1.6 billion won (HK$10.3 million) in damages due to emotional stress from a miscarriage, and subsequently gave birth to Kim’s child a month before his enlistment. A court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove her claim but she has appealed against the court’s decision. Next to be discharged from military service is TVXQ’s Yunho. The 30-year-old singer, who enlisted in July 2015, will return to civilian life in April. Yunho served in a military band and was honoured for his service in May 2016. Super Junior’s Eunhyuk and Donghae will return to K-pop three months after Yunho. Eunhyuk, who enlisted in October 2015 and also served in a military band, will be discharged in July. Donghae, who joined the military two days after Eunhyuk and served in the police, will also be discharged in the same month. In August, three more pop idols – TVXQ’s Changmin, Super Junior’s Choi Si-won and JYJ’s Park Yoo-chun – will resume their musical careers. Changmin and Choi enlisted as police conscripts on the same day in November 2015. The last one to return will be singer-actor Lee Seung-gi. He enlisted in February 2016 and will be discharged in October. Lee released a single, I’m Joining the Military, before his enlistment.
Wrongful polygraph conviction cases to be reinvestigated
By Jason Pan The Control Yuan this week ordered a re-examination of polygraph tests conducted by Lee Fu-kuo (李復國), who was the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s polygraph testing expert and who presided over a number of wrongful conviction cases. Controversy surrounding Lee and his judgements have cast doubt on the reliability and scientific validity of polygraph testing and have led to questions of whether wrongful prosecution arose from human error or unethical conduct. A Control Yuan committee approved an investigation report on Wednesday looking into the issue and mandated the Executive Yuan open a probe into cases dating back to 1988 as presided over by Lee, who in 2008 retired from his position at the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The most prominent conviction that resulted from Lee’s polygraph assessment was Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), a 21-year-old who was serving his compulsory military service at an air force headquarters office and who was executed in 1997 after being wrongly identified as the man who raped and killed a five-year-old girl. He was posthumously acquitted in 2011. Chiang and his family had maintained his innocence and said that he was tortured and forced to sign a “confession.” Lee was the polygraph expert at the bureau during the investigation and conducted the testing on a number of suspects at the office. Chiang was reportedly the only suspect who failed the polygraph test administered by Lee. Air force officials and the military tribunal fingered Chiang as the main suspect and he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death less than one year after the investigation began. In another case involving the theft of ammunition at a Taoyuan military base in 1999, officials focused their investigation on three soldiers who reportedly failed Lee’s polygraph tests. However, tests by another expert from the police agency cleared them. In 2000, four men were charged over the theft based on physical evidence, thereby clearing the three accused soldiers. Control Yuan members Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) and Chang Kui-mei (仉桂美), who wrote the report, said their findings cast doubt on the use of polygraph testing in judicial investigations, saying that results can be interpreted subjectively and are prone to human error. “We found there is no standard procedure and no regulations for polygraph testing. The use of the results in criminal trials infringes on the rights of the accused and violates other human rights issues,” Wang said.
Support for conscientious objection increases
By Kim Se-jeong The number of people in Korea who support conscientious objection has risen significantly over the last decade, a recent survey showed, Monday. According to the survey conducted by the National Human Rights Commission on 2,556 people aged 15 or older from May to December, 46.1 percent of respondents said the country should allow conscientious objection. The commission has conducted the survey regularly and the support ratio has increased from 10.2 percent in 2005 to 33.3 percent in 2011. "Tolerance has improved, but it is clear that conscientious objection is still a contentious issue in Korean society," the commission said in a report. "The number shows it is time for open discussion about it." The survey didn't mention what contributed to the change in public opinion. All able-bodied men aged 18 or older in Korea are obliged to serve in the military. Objectors are subject to prison terms. According to statistics, almost 600 men are punished every year for refusing to serve. Most objectors in Korea cite religion or personal belief in peace as reasons for refusal. Many of them are Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination. They demand the government give them an opportunity to serve the country in other ways by introducing alternative services. But the government has refused to accommodate their request, saying no exception is allowed for compulsory military service. The survey results came out hours before a local court ruling in favor of conscientious objection. Siding with a 23-year-old conscientious objector surnamed Park, the Jeonju District Court in North Jeolla Province said, "We recognized that the defendant refused to serve on the basis of his religion and values, which is an individual freedom given to all." Park, a Jehovah's Witness, was taken to court by the government in June last year after refusing to comply with the mandatory service. A dozen other local courts and an appeals court in Gwangju have also ruled in favor of conscientious objectors. The Constitutional Court has been reviewing petitions from such people and is expected to make a ruling sometime early this year on whether compulsory military service infringes on individuals' freedoms and whether the country needs to allow alternative services. The ruling was originally due by the end of last year, but was put off as the court has been focusing on the review of President Park Geun-hye's impeachment. In 2004 and 2011, it ruled against objectors.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 A petition demanding to restore a compulsory military service in a bid to boost the country’s security has been published on Latvia’s public initiatives’ platform on Tuesday.
2 The military estimates that the number of South Korean troops could drop significantly if the period of compulsory military service is cut to 12 months.
3 The Egyptian cabinet has dismissed media reports that it was considering either raising the minimum wage to EGP 1500, or implementing compulsory military service for women.