Publication

Arts and Sports Personnel in Korea's Military Service: How the Criteria Changed and What Reform Raises

This issue brief traces how the criteria for Korea's arts and sports personnel system were set and changed, using the texts of past laws, National Assembly minutes and government documents. Under the system, prize winners at specified competitions are assigned to supplementary service and serve in their own field for two years and ten months, with a call-up for military training and 544 hours of public-interest service. The 1973 act had no competition or ranking criteria; they first appeared in 1981, and the sports criteria of third place or higher at the Olympics and first place at the Asian Games have been the same since April 1990. The 1989 act limited new qualification to the end of 1992, and the 1993 revision of the Military Service Act brought arts and sports back in. The top 16 at the World Cup (2002) and the top four at the World Baseball Classic (2006) were added and then removed from January 2008. In 2019 the government reviewed abolition and decided to keep the system; bills to abolish it, introduce a cumulative points system or move service into military units lapsed when the Assembly's term expired. On October 6, 2026 the Ministry of National Defense said it plans to pursue supplementary service reform including arts and sports personnel, without giving a timetable. In an Institute for Reform poll (RIO 2026-09), 59.2% said the special case should not be given to athletes and 62.3% to artists; on the direction of the system, 41.6% chose reduce, 27.9% abolish, 15.0% maintain and 10.2% expand. The brief offers no proposal of its own and closes with four questions for the government and the Assembly.