South Korea debates mandatory military service for women amid demographic decline

Nearly 60% of South Koreans are now in favor of young women serving mandatory military service alongside their male counterparts, according to a recent survey, representing a significant shift in the long-held taboo against women being obliged to defend the nation.

Thousands of women already serve in the South Korean armed forces on a voluntary basis, but the debate over mandatory service has always been delicate.

Now, for a series of reasons that include a falling birth rate and shrinking number of recruits as well as an insistence that social equality means that women should also serve, the issue has re-emerged ahead of a reform of the national defense plan scheduled to be released this autumn.

Yet, there are still those who insist women should be kept away from the front lines and, instead, that South Korea should invest more in drones and other advanced technologies.

"South Korea's male-centered conscription system has long been closely connected to traditional gender roles," said Hyobin Lee, a professor at Sogang University in Seoul.

"Men were generally expected to protect the country and the family and to fight in wartime, while women were expected to take primary responsibility for childbirth, childcare and the household," she told DW.

A second factor is the intensifying debate about gender equality, a debate in large part driven by young men, she said.

Warfare moves beyond the physical

"South Korean men generally perform their military service in their early 20s, which interrupts their education, employment or early career development," Lee said.

"At the same time, gender equality has become an increasingly important social value, and women's opportunities in education and employment have expanded."

"As a result, some younger men ask a very simple question: If society expects equality in rights and opportunities, why does one of the country's most significant civic obligations — military service — still fall only on men?"

Another contributing factor is the change in the nature of the military itself, with a shift away from physically demanding combat roles that were perceived as being more suited to men and the emergence of a national defense more heavily reliant on technology.

This includes unmanned systems, cyber capabilities, information and communications technology and others that do not require physical strength.

What does the study show?

According to the study, carried out by the Reform Institute, the policy research arm of the conservative-leaning Reform Party, and published on August 20, almost 60% of the respondents were in favor of changing the law to require women to undergo national service. Just 34% were opposed to the idea.

Nearly 65% of men were in favor — a figure that rose to 71.7% among men in their 20s and 30s — with 54.5% of women across all age groups similarly supportive.

At present, all able-bodied men are required to complete a minimum of 18 months and up to 21 months of service and can be called back into service in the event of a national emergency, such as war breaking out on the tense Korean Peninsula.

The latest figures highlight, however, personnel shortages that have affected South Korea's armed forces.

According to the Defense Ministry, around 332,000 men were eligible to perform mandatory military service in 2019. That number fell to 257,000 men in 2022 and is forecast to shrink to just 120,000 men in 2043.

While Hyobin Lee is strongly in favor of equality throughout South Korean society, she fears that obliging women to serve the same military terms as men may turn out to be a negative because so many other elements in society still lag.

Women's traditional responsibilities remain unchanged

"Women in South Korea still bear a much greater share of the responsibilities associated with pregnancy, childbirth and childcare," she underlined.

"Having a child can still lead to career interruption or withdrawal from the labor market, and women's responsibilities for caregiving have not declined to the same extent that their participation in education and employment has increased," Lee added.

"If women were also required to complete military service, the cumulative burden across their life course could become even greater," she pointed out.

"In a country that is already experiencing an extremely low birth rate, it is also possible that this additional compulsory obligation could further delay or discourage marriage and childbirth."

Lee comes from a family with a strong military background, with a grandfather an admiral in the navy and her father serving in the same branch of the military.

But she would have had reservations in completing mandatory service herself.

"If someone chooses a military career, that is completely different from compulsory service," she said.

"Eighteen months in your 20s is a very significant period in a person's life. It is a time when people are studying, beginning their careers, and making important personal choices. Having to put all of that on hold because the state requires it is a substantial burden," she said.

"Personally, I would have found it extremely difficult to give up 18 months of my younger years in that way."

Song Young-Chae, a Seoul-based academic and human rights activist, completed two years in the infantry as a younger man, when periods of service were longer. He is opposed to mandatory service for women.

"The defense of the nation is traditionally the responsibility of men, and I do not believe that there is such an urgent need to conscript women into front-line service," he told DW.

Need to invest in modern technology

"I served along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with North Korea, and it was a hard posting," he added. "I believe that we should be investing far more in drones, robots and other advanced military technologies to protect our borders."

The South Korean government set up a task force in 2025 to revise the nation's basic defense plan, with troop modernization and an overhaul of the conscription system — introduced in the 1950s — high on the agenda.

In an interview with the Yonhap News Agency on August 9, Military Manpower Commissioner Hong So-young admitted that the nation faces a "demographic cliff" and that reforms are urgently required. Those include potentially reducing the number of people exempt from service and requiring foreign-born people who have taken South Korean nationality to also serve.

Hong made no comment about mandatory service for Korean women, but said the system needs a "fundamental" overhaul.

Edited by: Shamil Shams