South Korean Men and the Military: the Influence of Conscription on the Political Behavior of South Korean Males
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Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2015 South Korean Men and the Military: The nflueI nce of Conscription on the Political Behavior of South Korean Males Hyo Sung Joo Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Joo, Hyo Sung, "South Korean Men and the Military: The nflueI nce of Conscription on the Political Behavior of South Korean Males" (2015). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 1048. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1048 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE South Korean Men and the Military: The Influence of Conscription on the Political Behavior of South Korean Males SUBMITTED TO Professor Jennifer M. Taw AND Dean Nicholas Warner BY Hyo Sung Joo for SENIOR THESIS Fall 2014 December 1st, 2014 2 3 ABSTRACT This thesis evaluates the effects of compulsory military service in South Korea on the political behavior of men from a public policy standpoint. I take an institutional point of view on conscription, in that conscription forces the military to accept individuals with minimal screening. Given the distinct set of values embodied by the military, I hypothesize that the military would need a powerful, comprehensive, and fast program of indoctrination to re-socialize civilians into military uniform, trustable enough to be entrusted with a gun or a confidential document. Based on the existence of such a program and related academic literature, I go on to look at how a military attitude has political implications, especially for the security-environment of the Korean peninsula. Given the ideological nature of the inter-Korean conflict, the South Korean military was biased against the liberals, as liberals were most likely to generate policies supporting conciliatory and cooperative measures towards North Korea, like the removal of U.S. forces from South Korea and the repeal of the National Security Laws that outlaw discussion of communism. For an empirical evaluation, I pose the hypothesis that this political bias would manifest itself in the male public via the military’s indoctrinative program. With data from the Korean General Social Survey, the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, and the South Korean General Election Panel Study, I have found that males respond acutely to specific security issues in favor or against according to the military’s point of view. However, the evidence for an overall bias on political parties generally was inconclusive. The uncertainty was mainly rooted in the fact that liberal parties have strategically avoided speaking out on specific policy issues during election. Key words: Conscription, South Korea, civil-military relations, public opinion, inter-Korean conflict, Cold War, anti-communism 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................6 CHAPTER I CONSCRIPTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION ..................................11 THE NEED FOR INDOCTRINATION IN A CONSCRIPTED ARMY ........................................................................11 Public values and democracy ................................................................................................................14 Role of conscripts in the military ...........................................................................................................17 Service time ............................................................................................................................................18 Long term security threat .......................................................................................................................20 INDOCTRINATION IN TRAINING: EMPIRICAL EXAMPLES FROM SOUTH KOREA ............................................21 Background on South Korean Conscription ..........................................................................................21 Conceptual development of indoctrination in South Korean military training .....................................23 Practical applications: Jung-hoon ........................................................................................................26 CHAPTER II: THE POLITICAL BIAS OF THE MILITARY ..............................................................40 SECURITIZATION OF IDEOLOGY AND POLITICIZATION OF SECURITY ............................................................41 Anticommunism in the South Korean military .......................................................................................42 Anticommunist rhetoric in the military ..................................................................................................45 Expansion of the military mission ..........................................................................................................47 POLITICAL BIAS IN THE MILITARY IN THE DOMESTIC REALM .......................................................................50 Communism and the South Korean left .................................................................................................50 The political intervention of the military ...............................................................................................57 CHAPTER III: THE EFFECTS OF MILITARY SERVICE: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION .....68 METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................................................................68 HYPOTHESIS I: THE JUMP IN MILITARY VALUES ..........................................................................................70 HYPOTHESIS II: GROUP OPINIONS ON NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES ............................................................74 Acceptance of North Korean refugees ...................................................................................................74 U.S. military activities in South Korea ..................................................................................................76 View of North Korea: A broader perspective ........................................................................................77 HYPOTHESIS III INFLUENCES GROUP OPINIONS ON NON-MILITARY PARTISAN ISSUES .................................82 Korean teacher’s and educational worker’s union ...............................................................................83 Labor rights issues .................................................................................................................................85 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................................88 CHAPTER IV: POLICY IMPLICATION OF FINDINGS .....................................................................89 RIGID STANCE TO LIBERALIZATION .............................................................................................................89 CONCENTRATION OF MALE INTERESTS ........................................................................................................94 LIMITATIONS AND THE DIRECTION FORWARD .............................................................................................97 The generational and developmental variable of young adults .............................................................98 Conflict and emotions: South Korean hatred of communism ..............................................................100 CONCLUDING REMARKS .....................................................................................................................104 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................................106 5 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Jennifer Taw for her instruction and guidance in writing this thesis. As my academic advisor, professor in four classes, employer, and thesis reader, you deserve credit for not only this thesis, but also for my standing as a student overall. I have grown so much academically since my first day in your GOV70H class, and will always be grateful for your advices on everything inside and outside of international relations. Also, I would like to thank Professor Roderic Camp, under whose instruction in three consecutive research seminars I have further cemented my passion for empirical research. In particular, I have learned greatly from benchmarking your research techniques, in incorporating public opinion data and interviews. Next, I thank the former servicemen of the South Korean military that I have interviewed for this project. Your enthusiasm and knowledge have enabled me to have a grasp of the Korean military that would not have been possible through any other medium. Regardless of whether your account was actually quoted or not, your contributions have formed the backbone of my research and arguments. Using this thesis as a starting point, I hope to produce more fruitful research that contributes to a more transparent, stable, and safe military system in South Korea and elsewhere. Lastly, I thank my family and friends for staying through with me even when all what I could talk about seemed