Sim Sang-jung: "From 2030, All Military Service by Recruitment... Guarantee Starting Salary of 3 Million Won"

"Mixed Conscription and Volunteer Recruitment Until 2029... Full Volunteer System from 2030
Standing Army to Be 300,000 Strong... Defense to Modernize, Scientify, and Intelligentize"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Sim Sang-jung, the presidential candidate of the Justice Party, announced on the 15th that she will transition to an all-volunteer military system by 2030 through a phased volunteer recruitment system.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On this day, at a press conference held at the National Assembly to announce her volunteer recruitment pledge, Candidate Sim stated, "A paradigm shift is needed to manage national defense flawlessly while transforming the size and nature of the military," and announced, "We will pass through a first phase of mixed conscription and volunteer recruitment and transition to a second phase of an all-volunteer military."

Candidate Sim explained, "The current conscription system, which requires 18 months of service, demands the conscription of 200,000 young people annually, but from 2027, a supply shortage will begin, and by the 2030s, a depletion of military personnel will be reached." She emphasized, "The conscription army, which has regarded youth merely as tools and means of national defense and imposed only obligations, has become a space of deep loss and pain of disconnection for the frustrated generation of youth," and stressed, "We must open a new era of National Defense Reform 3.0."

To this end, Candidate Sim pledged to modernize, scientify, and intellectualize national defense based on a standing army of 300,000. She also stated that she would design a phased volunteer recruitment system realizing equal service for men and women, operating a mixed conscription and volunteer system by 2029 that combines conscripts serving 12 months of mandatory service and professional soldiers serving 4 years of mandatory service.

She revealed plans to apply a differentiated approach, prioritizing the Navy (Marine Corps) and Air Force, which currently operate with volunteers, to transition to the new system by 2025, while the Army, which requires time and cost for unit structure transformation, will transition by 2029. She explained that conscription will disappear in the 2030s, and the soldier class will be operated entirely by volunteers.

Candidate Sim said, "The troop composition of the reformed Korean military will see the Army reduced to 150,000, about half of the current level, while the Navy (Marine Corps) and Air Force will maintain 150,000 each, promoting balanced development among the three services." She promised, "Even after the volunteer system is established, we will implement a military service registration obligation system similar to that of the United States, so that all military service obligations can be rapidly mobilized in emergencies." She also stated that the current reserve force system of over 2 million people will be abolished and converted into a professional reserve force system of about 500,000.

She plans to guarantee a starting salary of about 3 million KRW for professional soldiers.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Candidate Sim emphasized, "A professionalized military is a productive group that provides opportunities to youth," and said, "If one enters as a non-commissioned officer in the fifth year, we will support university (graduate school) enrollment, and even after serving as a long-term professional soldier for over 10 years and being discharged, we will prepare 10,000 jobs so that they can advance to military-related affiliated positions such as university military science faculty, defense public officials, firefighters, police, reserve commanders, emergency planners, and military mutual aid associations."

Candidate Sim predicted that the financial burden from transitioning to a volunteer system would not be significant. In a press release on the day, she explained, "If the starting annual salary of professional soldiers is 36 million KRW, 300,000 soldiers would require an annual budget of 5.4 trillion KRW. Subtracting the reduced budget of 2.4 trillion KRW from the decrease of 200,000 conscripts with an annual salary of 12 million KRW as of 2022, the net increase is about 3 trillion KRW." She added, "As troop reductions simplify unit structures, additional reductions in budgets for housing and facilities, clothing, meals, equipment, and training required for personnel management are expected, so the additional savings will greatly exceed the increase in labor costs," and analyzed, "The financial burden is not large compared to the scale of our national defense."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.