Saddled with a chronically-low birthrate and aging population,... South Korea faces a demographic cliff which is forecast to also affect the country's armed forces.
So the South Korean military plans to revise its physical requirements to up the number of soldiers.
Kim Ji-yeon explains.
The South Korean military is considering easing conscription standards to increase the number of active duty soldiers as the country faces a demographic cliff in the coming years.
The Ministry of National Defense and the Military Manpower Administration said Monday that the country is expected to revise its physical requirements and standards for active duty troops starting next year with the aim of applying the changes gradually in 2021 to minimize any confusion.
This includes changing the current standards constituting obesity, measured by the body mass index... as well as high blood pressure... to make both standards less strict than the ones currently applied.
About 90-percent of South Korean men applying for mandatory military service join the armed forces as active duty troops.
The rest are put on reservist duty or are granted a waiver... depending on their physical assessment.
The number of men in their 20s in South Korea was 350-thousand in 2017, but that number is expected to drop to between 220-thousand and 250-thousand by 2022 as the country's decades-long low birthrate begins to bite.
At the current rate, the pool of military servicemen is expected to shrink by 20 to 30-thousand every year from 2023.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.