Arya News - South Korea`s conscientious objectors are placed into the same 36-month, residential correctional-facility regime even when physical limitations would otherwise affect how they fulfil their military obligation.
SEOUL – When Lee underwent his military physical examination, he was classified Grade 4 because of recurrent rheumatism, a condition he said causes inflammation throughout his body when aggravated by physical labor or stress.
All able-bodied South Korean men are subject to compulsory military service, while many men classified Grade 4 fulfill their obligation through supplementary service, including as social service personnel who commute to their workplaces.
But after being recognized as a conscientious objector, Lee, a Jehovah’s Witness, entered a different system.
From April 2022 to April 2025, Lee spent three years performing alternative service at Gongju Prison in South Chungcheong Province and Yeoju Prison in Gyeonggi Province.
For close to a year, he said, his duties included carrying bottled water and boxes of goods purchased by inmates. He spent more than another year handling laundry, carrying wet clothes to the rooftop because the facility did not have a dryer.
“When I kept carrying heavy things, I would get severe inflammation in my fingers and feet,” Lee told The Korea Herald.
He said there were periods when he relied on painkillers daily to keep moving and felt discouraged from seeking medical leave too frequently after supervisors warned alternative-service personnel against going out for treatment too often and suggested that some might be feigning illness.
Lee’s case highlights one consequence of the system’s uniform structure: Conscientious objectors are placed into the same 36-month, residential correctional-facility regime even when physical limitations would otherwise affect how they fulfill their military obligation.
It also adds a less-examined health dimension to a broader dispute that has persisted since Korea introduced alternative service for conscientious objectors in 2020: whether a system created to end their criminal punishment is itself excessively burdensome or punitive.
Alternative-service personnel serve for 36 months — twice the 18-month Army service period — and are required to live communally at correctional facilities.
According to the Military Manpower Administration, 2,931 conscientious objectors had been called for alternative service between the program’s launch in October 2020 and July this year.
Created to end decades in which conscientious objectors, historically overwhelmingly Jehovah’s Witnesses, were routinely imprisoned for refusing military service, the system has drawn criticism from Korea’s National Human Rights Commission, UN human rights bodies and four Constitutional Court justices over its duration and exclusive reliance on correctional facilities.
Grade 4, but a different track
Lee’s conscientious objection meant that his Grade 4 classification did not place him in the social-service system available to other Grade 4 conscripts.
The Military Manpower Administration told The Korea Herald that alternative service is not determined by a person’s physical ability to perform military duty, but is a separate form of service for those seeking to fulfill their military obligation without violating their conscience.
The issue raised by Lee’s case, therefore, is not whether his Grade 4 classification entitled him to social service, but whether his health limitations were meaningfully accommodated within the alternative-service system.
Individual correctional institutions are required to take a person’s illness and physical condition into account when assigning work, according to the MMA and Justice Ministry.
Lee said that did not reflect his experience. He said he informed officials of his condition when he began service, but did not undergo a separate work-adjustment process and was nevertheless assigned physically demanding duties.
Beyond the physical strain, Lee said the correctional-facility-only model creates other burdens, including direct contact with inmates and poor communal living conditions.
During laundry duty, there were occasions when inmates entered his work area while correctional officers remained outside, leaving alternative-service personnel speaking with them one on one, he said. Lee said inmates sometimes became confrontational, complained aggressively or made insulting remarks toward alternative-service personnel.
After workers repeatedly raised concerns, Lee said, instructions were issued requiring staff to be present during direct interactions and conditions improved.
The Justice Ministry recognized that some alternative-service duties involve direct contact with inmates, but said such work is supposed to take place under direct supervision by correctional officers, with personnel given safety instructions.
Lee also described poor living conditions at Gongju Prison, including rooms shared by eight or 10 people, frequent rain leaks, mold and poor drainage.
The Justice Ministry told The Korea Herald that alternative service is administered under common rules nationwide, although detailed conditions may differ depending on individual facilities’ size, staffing and funding.
When does alternative service become punishment?
The National Human Rights Commission has focused its recommendations on two features of the system: its duration and the confinement of placements to correctional facilities.
The commission has argued that the 36-month term should be shortened based on a benchmark of no more than 1.5 times the active-duty service period.
Lee Seong-taek, head of the commission’s Military Human Rights Investigation Division, explained that the 36-month term was set by applying a ratio of 1.5 times to the Army’s statutory 24-month service period. But soldiers actually serve 18 months because the defense minister has exercised authority to shorten that period.
The commission therefore argued that if the same benchmark is used, it should be applied to the actual 18-month term, meaning alternative service should be shorter than the current 36 months.
It has also recommended expanding alternative service beyond correctional facilities, including to areas such as social welfare and firefighting-related work. The Defense Ministry did not accept the recommendations on shortening the service period or diversifying placements.
The government, however, says the 36-month term cannot be compared only to the 18 months of the Army.
The MMA said the duration was set after considering fairness with active-duty soldiers and other forms of supplementary service, differences in service intensity and that alternative-service personnel are excluded from military duties in both peacetime and wartime.
The Constitutional Court addressed the legal question in May 2024, narrowly upholding the system in a 5-4 ruling.
Former Constitutional Court Justice Lee Mi-son, one of the four dissenters, told The Korea Herald that some additional burden may be justified to ensure fairness with active-duty service, but that burden cannot go so far as to deter people from choosing alternative service.
“The line is crossed when the burden of alternative service goes beyond what is necessary to ensure fairness with active-duty service and reaches the point of deterring people from choosing it,” she said.
She added that if the difficulty or intensity of alternative service is set so high as to discourage people from choosing it beyond what is necessary for fairness, the system effectively becomes another form of punishment.
The former justice argued that the 36-month term, compulsory communal residence and confinement of service to correctional facilities should be considered together rather than separately.
UN human rights bodies have raised similar concerns under international human rights standards.
In 2025, UN experts questioned whether Korea’s system could be considered punitive, citing its duration, prison-based placement and restrictions on movement. A UN human rights report in April again noted concerns over the 36-month term and correctional-facility-only model.
Speaking for the community most directly affected by the system, Jarrod Lopes, a spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said the organization recognizes how far Korea has come since conscientious objectors were routinely imprisoned, but argued that the current system still imposes burdens not applied in the same way to other conscripts.
“No Witness man in Korea is asking to carry a lighter load than his neighbor,” Lopes said. “These responsible young men simply want to use their full strength, as well as any specialized skills they have, to serve their communities in ways that will not harm their personal conscience.”
Lopes said Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seek to set their own threshold for when the system ceases to be punitive, but instead point to recommendations from Korean and international human rights bodies calling for shorter service and placements outside correctional facilities.
He also pointed to proposals he said had been made by Korea’s Alternative Service Commission to reduce the term to 27 months, allow commuting in exceptional cases and expand placements into areas such as firefighting.
The MMA said it is aware of differing views on the current system and is considering its future direction, but stressed that changes to a system involving fairness in military obligations require careful review and broad social consensus.