South Korea has been forced to serve for 70 years, and bullying in the military camp has become a tradition, and it is a nightmare that cannot be escaped?

Sun Heung-min "played" to start military service, and the unsolvable dilemma of Korean young people

In 2018, at the football final of the Jakarta Asian Games, Son Heung-min's eyes turned red when the referee blew the final whistle.

He fell to the ground, covered his face with his hands, and cried with joy. There were countless Korean fans cheering with him.

At that moment, Son Heung-min not only won a gold medal for South Korea, but also won the future of his career.

For the 26-year-old, this is not just a sports victory, but also a "battle" related to the direction of his life.

If Son Heung-min fails to win the championship, he will have to return to China to serve in the military before the age of 28, which will mean that he will bid farewell to the Premier League and his career may be completely interrupted.

Military service is already a huge life sacrifice for ordinary people, and the cost for an international player who struggled at his peak is even more immeasurable.

Luckily, Son Heung-min won. But for thousands of ordinary Korean young people, they do not have such a lucky pass.

Sun Heung-min's military service crisis

In fact, Son Heung-min's "military service crisis" laid the foreshadowing as early as 2014.

At that time, he had just transferred from Hamburg to the German club Leverkusen. In order to integrate into the new team as soon as possible, he failed to represent South Korea in the Incheon Asian Games.

That year, the South Korean team won the championship, but Son Heung-min missed the opportunity to be exempted from military service.

Two years later, the Rio Olympics seemed to be an opportunity to make up for their regrets, but the South Korean team unexpectedly stopped in the quarterfinals. Over time, the window for military service is getting smaller and smaller.

By the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, this was Son Heung-min's last chance.

However, the road to winning gold is not smooth. In the quarterfinals, South Korea was nearly eliminated by Uzbekistan.

Fortunately, his teammate Huang Yizhu stepped forward, scored a hat trick and created a key penalty, helping the team win the opponent. In the final, South Korea finally defeated the Japanese team and successfully won the championship. Son Heung-min was also exempted from military service.

However, despite the exemption, he completed four weeks of basic military training and hundreds of hours of community service as required.

It is reported that he ranked among the top in military training and his career was not affected. Later, he not only won the Premier League Golden Boot, but also became a representative figure in Asian football.

Ministerial Military Service: The "time tax" of Korean young people

Sun Heung-min's story has attracted people's attention to the South Korean military service system.

In South Korea, almost all healthy male citizens must complete 18 to 21 months of military service between the ages of 20 and 30.

For ordinary young people, this is a heavy "time tax bill".

You may have just graduated from college and be looking for a job, but suddenly you find that you are going to join the army; or your career is just starting out, but you have to stop and put on your military uniform.

For those who are already in the workplace, military service is even more of a gap in the workplace, and many employers are unwilling to promote an employee who may serve at any time.

When I returned from the army, the blank period on my resume was embarrassing, and the skills learned in the military camp were not much helpful to the workplace.

What is even more unbearable is the environmental problems in the military camp.

For a long time, bullying, corporal punishment, sexual harassment and other phenomena have been common in the South Korean army.

The media occasionally exposed news that soldiers committed suicide due to mental stress, and even tragedy in which soldiers shot their comrades due to long-term bullying.

Apart from this, the salary of conscripts is surprisingly low, which has not improved slightly until recent years, but is still not enough to maintain a basic life.

The first thing some soldiers do after they are discharged from the army is to rush into convenience stores and buy a bunch of snacks and instant noodles to calm the "traumatic memories" of military life.

Various means of evading military service

Faced with military service, Korean young people tried their best to escape.

From the early "school status extension" to "physical examination fraud", to immigration or nationality change, there are many ways.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the number of college students in South Korea was sparse, and as long as they were "school students", they could suspend their military service.

Therefore, many people delayed until they were 30 years old by failing the exam and retention of grades, and successfully bypassed military service.

Later, the government plugged this loophole, and fake physical examinations became a new "popular way".

Some people deliberately overeat or lose weight on diet, making themselves fail the physical examination.

Some people have also forged a history of mental illness in an attempt to avoid service through "special reasons."

However, once these methods are discovered, they will not only face legal sanctions, but also be condemned by public opinion.

star Liu Chengjun was banned from entering the country by the South Korean government because of changing nationality.

Although he later tried to regain his image through a public apology, he still failed to return to South Korea.

In contrast, sports stars like Son Heung-min are both legal and decent if they are exempted from military service through competitive results.

is not only national defense, but also a social problem. Son Heung-min's luck cannot be copied, but his story also reveals the deep problems behind South Korea's military service system.

The military service of the whole militia is no longer just a simple national defense issue, it also carries multiple burdens of history, politics and society.

In South Korea, any voice trying to reform the military service system will be labeled as "endangering national security", and the continuation of the culture of the predecessors makes the problem even more unsolvable.

For ordinary young people, military service is an unavoidable period of stagnation in life.

Son Heung-min's gold medal may allow Koreans to find some comfort for the military service system for the time being, but more young people are still suffering indescribable suffering in the military camp..

This is an unsolvable social gamble, and its price is borne by generations of young people.