The Marmot’s Hole

Well, this poses an interesting dilemma. Two young Korean men–one holds U.S. citizenship and the other has permanent residency–reach the age when the must report for Korea’s mandatory military service. So in 2004 they do what any patriotic young man would do. They enlist. Except they enlist in the U.S. military. And now, the Defense Ministry and Military Manpower Administration are considering talks with U.S. military authorities in a bid to get their men back.

According to the Hankoyreh report, the U.S. citizen is supposed to be serving with a U.S. unit in Germany, but he made the mistake of visiting Korea on leave in June. The Korean Justice Ministry promptly placed a travel ban on him for violating Korea’s national service law. For the last eight months, he’s supposedly been holed up a U.S. base here. The U.S. residency holder, on the other hand, apparently left Korea for the States without informing anyone, signed up with the U.S. military, and was deployed back to Korea with USFK.

The Military Manpower Administration believes the men should be prosecuted for violating the national service law, but concerned that it might spark a diplomatic dispute with the United States, it has asked the Defense Ministry for instructions as to how to proceed. An official with the MMA said this was the first instance something like this has occurred.