South Korea convicts man over binge eating to dodge military draft

A South Korean man who ate to the point of obesity in an attempt to dodge the army has avoided prison after he pledged to take up his mandatory military service.

The man, who was not publicly identified, was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, by a court in Seoul for violating the country’s Military Service Act.

He was ruled out of active duty in June last year after he weighed in at 102 kilograms (225 pounds) with a body mass index classified as obese, six years after he was deemed fit to serve following an initial physical exam, according to the November 13 ruling.

“The defendant consumed high-calorie foods, approximately doubled his meal portions, refrained from physically demanding jobs such as parcel delivery work, and drank large amounts of water right before measurements to deliberately increase his weight,” the judge said in the ruling.

The man, whose age was not revealed by the court, has since “expressed his intention to fulfill his military duty sincerely,” the ruling said.

A friend who encouraged the man to take up his radical eating regime was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for one year, for aiding and abetting the offense, according to the ruling.

Since the Korean War, almost all able-bodied men in South Korea have been required to serve in the army for at least 18 months by the time they are 28 years old.

The requirement has long been a contentious topic – hundreds of conscientious objectors have been jailed over the years, according to Amnesty International, many of whom refused to serve on religious grounds.

It has also interrupted the careers of many prominent sports and music stars, including K-pop phenomenon BTS, which went on hiatus in 2022 to perform military service.

There have been dozens of cases of young men who intentionally gain or lose weight, feign mental illness, get full body tattoos, or self-harm to receive an exemption, the Yonhap news agency reported in 2018. The military have since become more tolerant of tattoos, cutting off that particular draft-dodging loophole.

The Constitutional Court ruled in 2018 that the government must provide alternative civilian roles for those who refuse to take up arms, due to religious or political reasons.

But the draft has remained controversial – even becoming a flash point in heated gender wars. Women are exempt from compulsory conscription, and volunteer females account for only 3.6% of the Korean military, according to the Defense Ministry.

That has angered many men, including a vocal “anti-feminist” bloc who argue the draft gives women an unfair advantage in the country’s hyper-competitive job market. Many point to statistics showing women attend university at a higher rate than men, arguing that young men should also be able to pursue their dreams and careers.

In a 2018 survey, 72% of Korean men in their 20s said they thought the draft was a form of gender discrimination, and almost 65% believed women should also be conscripted. Nearly 83% said it was better to dodge military service if possible, and 68% believed it was a waste of time.