The headline leaves out some key details. It looks like he did this to avoid a promotion, specifically. Meaning that he was already enlisted, and gave up a lot of rights that a civilian would otherwise have. The article doesn’t make it clear if the same sort of conviction could be applied to a civilian trying to dodge the draft.EDIT: The article has been updated and no longer seems to refer to the person receiving a promotion, and it appears he was always a civilian.
I normally don’t comment, but this is completely incorrect. What happened here is that the Korean conscription system separates people into four levels of eligibility depending on health and other factors. IIRC, category 1 and 2 are healthy enough for active duty, 3 is borderline, and 4 is not fit for active duty. This person would have been in a active duty category, but gained weight in order to dodge active duty and either get conscription waived or do alternative service such as public service. This person was not already active duty, but got his conscription notice.
Edit: It’s actually worse. He previously took his medical evaluation and was deemed fit for active duty (either category 1 or 2) and was waiting for an enlistment date (apparently it’s actually hard to get an open spot for military service these days). In that time, he allegedly deliberately gained weight so that when the day came and he had to redo his physical, he would be able to dodge active duty.
