ID :
188340
Tue, 06/14/2011 - 06:57
Auther :

Lawmaker cites loopholes in screening of draft dodgers

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SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap) -- The Military Manpower Administration needs to heighten its screening procedures to hunt for draft dodgers as it belatedly found some draftees who avoided military service by forging documents to pose as the disabled, a lawmaker said Tuesday.
Five young men were found this year to have illegally doctored such documents to help them evade the compulsory military service. They already had won exemptions two or three years ago, according to the report by Rep. Shin Hak-yong of the main opposition Democratic Party.
The administration belatedly confirmed early this year that they have illegally avoided the military service, and they were forced to serve in the military, Shin said.
Some administration officials failed to check their physical status because they only screened their faked documents, the lawmaker said.
"The Military Manpower Administration must remedy shortcomings in the screening procedures for those who could exploit documents for the disabled to evade military service," Shin said in the statement.
All healthy young South Korean men must serve for at least two years in the nation's 650,000-member military, an integral part of the South's defense against communist North Korea.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.
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