S. Korea scraps conscription privilege for men from multicultural families

The government has abolished a regulation allowing men of multicultural backgrounds to serve their mandatory military service in the same unit with friends or relatives, citing low demand and its discriminative nature.

The change has been reflected in the revised regulations on the recruitment of active duty soldiers, taking effect this month, the Military Manpower Administration said in a release. 

South Korea adopted the system in 2011, by which two or three men could be conscripted in a group and undergo training together, in an effort to help them get settled in for the military service. 

But it came to conclude that such preferential treatment itself holds discriminatory elements, as the system requires the applicant to disclose his family background in order to be entitled to the privilege.

Also the figures have suggested that the demand is quite low.

The number of conscripts that fit into the category only stood at 16 last year.

All able-bodied South Korean men must carry out compulsory military service for about two years in a country that faces North Korea across a heavily fortified border. (Yonhap)