Lee Yong-won, a member of the People Power Party and a former military journalist, emphasized on the 18th regarding former Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung's pledge to shorten military service and introduce a selective enlistment system, saying that "preventing the departure of junior intermediate-level personnel is a priority."
On that day, Lee held a press conference at the National Assembly communication center and pointed out that "Candidate Lee's proposal for shortening military service and introducing a selective enlistment system is a clear political attempt aimed at voters, ignoring the military's operational gaps and security risks. This is a dangerous idea."
He noted that advancing the shortening of military service and a selective enlistment system could lead to a decline in the proficiency of troops and raise concerns about gaps in the supply of junior personnel. He also pointed out that it could become difficult to properly maintain combat readiness amid growing security threats from North Korea.
Lee said, "The minimum period required to train a New Recruit is five weeks. Excluding various leaves and outings, the actual service period may not even reach eight months. How can you expect to effectively command a unit with poorly trained soldiers?"
He added, "North Korea's provocations, including various missile threats, balloon incidents, GPS jamming in the West Sea, and cyber hacking attempts, are evolving daily across all areas. How can we properly protect the lives and property of our citizens with soldiers who can't even handle a single rifle proficiently?"
He also pointed out that the issue of non-commissioned officer personnel departures could become visible. According to the data released by Lee, the number of Army non-commissioned officers wishing to leave in the first quarter of this year is 668, which is an increase of 112% compared to the same period four years ago (315 people). The number of new appointments during the same period has decreased from 2,156 to 749. Lee stated, "Despite the improvement in military service conditions, the treatment of junior intermediate-level personnel has remained stagnant."
He presented examples from Sweden and Taiwan, which shifted from conscription to voluntary enlistment and then reverted back to conscription due to heightened security threats, saying, "We should not repeat the failures of past policies."
Lee emphasized, "It is certainly important to increase benefits for soldiers during their military service and to further improve treatment, but now is the time to stop the rush of our junior and intermediate-level personnel leaving the military who are defenseless and collapsing."
Earlier, on the 17th, Candidate Lee visited the Daejeon Defense Research Institute and said, "It seems we have completely moved to an era where decisions are made with a weapon system rather than just the number of people, like during the Korean War," indicating that "operating a selective enlistment system would be appropriate."
Candidate Lee made a pledge during the 2022 presidential election to reduce the number of conscripts to 150,000, half of the then-current level, and to shorten the service period from 18 months to 10 months. The selective enlistment system allows military service candidates who meet certain conditions to switch to volunteer enlistment or choose other forms of service.