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The statement came a day after the ideas were proposed during a forum hosted by ruling People Power Party Rep. Shin Won-sik, the Military Manpower Administration and a former military generals' association.
"If the current system of military force management continues, not only will the chronic shortage of personnel worsen, but it will also become increasingly difficult to maintain the target of maintaining approximately 365,000 soldiers in the Army by 2025," Cho Kwan-ho, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said during the forum. "From a long-term perspective, the mandatory service period should be extended to 21 months or 24 months from the current 18 months."
In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged over 19 are required to serve in the military. Active duty enlisted personnel serve 18 months in the Army or Marine Corps, 20 months in the Navy and 21 months in the Air Force. Women are allowed to join the armed forces, but their service is voluntary.
The number of 20-year-old men in South Korea stood at 250,000 this year, but the number is anticipated to decline to 180,000 in 2037, triggering concerns about military manpower shortages.
Lee Han-ho, head of the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association, said "The current approach of reducing the military manpower based on a predetermined principle of an 18-month service period is nothing short of a grave neglect of our national security readiness," and "the country should seriously consider extending the service period to two years or longer."
"In the past, the country's birthrate surpassed 6 births per woman, but now it remains at 0.78, so there is no reason to not enforce conscription to women … Amending the related laws to enable women's conscription is a due assignment that should be considered," Lee said.
Women's conscription has long been a sensitive issue in South Korea, and it became a subject of heated debates in recent elections, as politicians, mostly conservatives, raised voices over the enlistment of women in an apparent effort to win support from men in their 20s.
Globally, there are only 10 countries that conscript both men and women, of which Sweden and Norway conscript both sexes on the same conditions. Countries including Israel, Myanmar, Libya and North Korea conscript women but allow different service periods and exemptions.
