Conscription In Korea And Taiwan: The Difference A Year Makes

For example, according to the 2023 National Defense Report, planned basic military training (BMT) consists of eight weeks. Similar to Korea, Taiwan has provisions for males not considered viable for service but who can still perform some form of national service. (See the following chart from the National Defense Report 2023.)

South Korea has a long-standing law that is steeped in societal acceptance toward military service as a typical process most males must undertake.

As mentioned, then-President Tsai's reinstating the one-year time of service was not popular politically. However, there is a profound difference in one year of service in the Taiwan compared with two years of service. At face value, South Korea seems to devote less time to initial military training, but its conscripts receive longer training over 18-21 months. Additional training is given to the conscripts from the military components that they are entering such as the army/marines, navy or air force.

However, Taiwan's previous political decisions first to reduce the conscription period to four months and then to raise it back to one year reflected the unpopularity of conscription.

There are two explanations for this phenomenon: lack of support for military service or lack of useful military training that would increase readiness and economic skills.

In contrast, two years of service as required in South Korea profoundly affects competency and effectiveness. Typically, the longer military personnel stay in their military specialty, the more proficient and competent they become. There is the added benefit that those personnel would be able to mentor incoming conscripts within their respective units. In theory, those new conscripts benefitting from mentors would be trained up faster.

Taiwan has systemic recruiting and retention challenges. Thus, well-trained troops who make the military their career field are in short supply. This problem in turn reduces the proficiency and capacity of Taiwanese armed forces in all areas, encompassing a long-term challenge . Consequently, a one-year turnover creates a logistical issue as well.

In summary, like South Korea, Taiwan is in a precarious position. Taiwan is moving in the right direction by reinstituting the one-year conscription requirement, because such required national military training is important not only for personnel recruitment and military readiness but also for the whole-of-society's deterrence and defense. Therefore, much more is needed in Taiwan. There needs to be a deep introspective look at a national and societal level and the viewpoint of national defense.

South Koreans, subject to required military conscription, might be individually unhappy with this national requirement. However, South Korea's societal acceptance of national defense has meant that people who try to skirt the duty or leave Taiwan to circumvent conscription law are seen as cowardly, not doing their part for the greater society, and treated as social pariahs. Examples are South Korean celebrities who to escape mandatory service and drew the fan bases' negative response.

In contrast, Taiwan's societal views previously indicated the unwillingness to return to one-year conscription and doubts about increased defense spending. This mindset is counter-productive to the national propensity to fight their existential threat. Some polls indicate that there is a segment of Taiwan's population who will leave the country, choose to surrender, or simply hide. However, other polls suggest that as many as 70% of Taiwanese people would fight to defend their country.

However, in the case of Taiwan, there may be confounding variables to the issue of social reluctance toward military service. The island state's ruling party, the Kuomintang, instituted martial law from the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 until 1987, during which time the military's role took on the role of law enforcement over a civilian population. The military implemented measures of control that were considered
violent and suppressive
by the general public. This historical trauma is still remembered by segments of the Taiwanese population today, which may be an additional reason that Taiwan is resistant to military service.

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For Taiwan, South Korea is an appropriate example of another Asian society that also faces an existential threat – as well as its own period of military rule . Yet, as mentioned previously, Korea generally has deep and wide societal acceptance of mandatory military service. Someone skirting the responsibility of national military service is seen as a coward, because that individual's action and decision diminish the country's overall defense.

Taiwan must institute a whole-of-society approach by the media, educational institutions (at all levels), and discussions around the family table about how conscription should not be seen as a burden but an honorable duty and part of life as a ROC citizen. Defense is not only the military's duty but that of the whole society. Part of educating all of society as to the importance of conscription is making people aware of the qualitative difference between four months and one year in military training – as well as the difference between one year and two.

In addition, bilateral and multilateral military dialogues involving Taiwan about required military training should be part of efforts to deter coercion and conflict as well as to shore up Taiwan's
resilience and legitimacy .

After Taiwan's first group of reinstated one-year conscripts completed their basic military training, a survey in 2024 found important public support for this extended compulsory military service should extend military conscription to longer than one year, especially since it lacks a territorial defense force like that of Ukraine.

Urgency is needed. Taiwan will face an in less than 10 years, possibly in the second half of the 2020s or the first half of the 2030s.

Kendrick Farm (...), a resident James A. Kelly Korea fellow at Pacific Forum, also is involved with a US-South Korean joint venture business with an emphasis on artificial intelligence.

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