S. Korea admits liability for Jehovah's Witnesses' deaths in military

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea acknowledged its liability Friday for the
deaths of five Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to bear arms after being
conscripted to defend against North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
The state-run Presidential Commission on Suspicious Deaths in the Military last
year began looking into the deaths of five soldiers who were believed to have
been abused by their superiors and comrades.
The defense ministry has long classified the soldiers as having died from causes
unrelated to violence over their objection to using weapons, an act prohibited by
the religious faith of Jehovah's Witnesses.
But the commission recently concluded that the deaths resulted from "state
violence" that discriminates against certain religious beliefs, and the Ministry
of National Defense said Friday it accepts the ruling.
"We have received the ruling from the commission and determined that we will not
raise an objection to it," said Park Kwang-woo, a ministry official who oversees
welfare policy.
All able-bodied South Korean men have been subject to at least two years of armed
service since the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather than a full
peace pact. About 660,000 South Korean soldiers face communist North Korea's
1.1-million army over a heavily fortified border.
Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a Christian sect that believes the end of the
world is near. They denounce all forms of militarism and were persecuted when
they refused to join the Nazis. They also do not vote, seeing all worldly powers
as tools of Satan.
Since 2002, South Korea has allowed Jehovah's Witnesses to choose a a jail term
of at least one and a half years instead of serving in the military, a sign that
the anti-communism that once dominated South Korean society has relaxed.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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