Human Rights Commission Urges Ministry of National Defense to Establish Safety System for Military Civil Support

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) announced on the 10th that it has recommended the Ministry of National Defense improve the excessive mobilization of military personnel for civilian support and establish a safety protection system.

Photo by Asia Economy DB

Following the 'Corporal Chae's Death in the Line of Duty Incident' that occurred in the Marine Corps in July last year, the NHRCK inspected the safety management status of military personnel deployed to disaster sites.

The investigation revealed that military personnel were mobilized not only for social disaster recovery efforts such as heavy snowfall and avian influenza but also for various local government events. The number of soldiers deployed for civilian support reached 1,017,146 in September 2022, which is 15 times higher compared to 65,778 in 2013.

The NHRCK requested the Ministry of National Defense to revise the 'Defense Disaster Management Directive' to distinguish between general civilian support and disaster civilian support in order to prevent excessive deployment of military personnel for civilian assistance.

Additionally, it recommended designating disaster response units considering the stationing locations of each unit and disaster areas, and unifying the command system. The commission also requested the preparation of safety-related manuals to be applied at disaster sites.

The NHRCK stated, "We judged that mobilizing military personnel for general projects at the request of local governments even when there is no disaster situation is problematic," and added, "Even in disaster crisis situations, the lack of an established safety management system for military personnel mobilized for civilian support also requires immediate improvement."

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