South Korea Yet Persists on Forcing Labour from Impaired Individuals

To everyone across the globe and whom it may concern,

Hope this message finds you well and hope you and your family are all keeping well despite the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

Like the title reads, the Republic of Korea government is yet, in this day and age, forcing labour to either mentally or physically challenged males (mostly young adults aged between 20 to 25) that are not able to serve their military duty full time and I would like to ask for your attention regarding the unconstitutional matter that this system is imposing on social minorities that are severely challenged both mentally and physically. The Republic of Korea government is imposing forced labour to aforementioned young males under the name of "public service", which mainly include cleaning, tidying up, serving customers (often elderly) at welfare and public venues, doing administrative tasks and anything that has nothing to do with defending the country itself.

ILO(International Labour Organisation) has long been arguing that the Republic of Korea government is violating ILO conventions and the government has been abusing ILO's C029 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) by giving the challenged individuals (considered inadequate for full-time military service) a "choice" between serving in military full-time and forcing the aforementioned public service that has nothing to do with the country's defense. We can already tell that the above “choice”, which the Republic of Korea government uses as the ground for alleged ILO convention ratification, is actually no different to forcing these poor people, where I am also included, to do public services just because they are not able to serve in the military due to inadequate physical and mental conditions. The government call them "social service agents".

Yet at this very moment, tons of physically and mentally impaired individuals are still being forced to provide labour despite their conditions. I have to say, being either physically or mentally unfit for a full-time military duty cannot be a valid reason for being forced labour. It is a total nonsense that the Republic of Korea government think they have a right to just go and abuse their own citizens like that. Korean Government yet blame Japan for having forced Korean citizens in the past. Well, they are contradicting themselves by abusing their own citizens. 

I know quite many of you are heavily blinded by all the cool stuff like BTS, K-pop and K-fashion that Korea offers. As much as I'm afraid to disappoint you, Korea isn't all about those happy fantasies. All those idols and celebrities that you love are not the exceptions to this draft system.