Fernando/Resistance, 7. “Enemies of the Nation, Heretics of the Church”

This article provides a history of South Korea's persecution of citizens who resist military conscription for reasons of conscientious objection. While some incidents of conscientious objection could have possibly occurred between 1944 and 1945 as Japan started officially conscripting Koreans, the first incidents of conscientious objection in Korea occurred right before and after the Korean War. For the past 70 years, over 19,000 conscientious objectors have served prison terms for refusing to serve in the military. Since 1955, the Korean Supreme Court has maintained the position that “the so-called ‘conscientious decision’ to deny the legal duty of military service in the name of religious doctrine is notallowed under the freedoms of conscience and religion in the Constitution”.