THE army will be drafting severely obese men to follow suit with the revised eligibility criteria for mandatory military service.
Based on the proposed criteria, as announced by the South Korean Ministry of Defence on Thursday, a 174cm-tall overweight man weighing 120kg can also be conscripted.
The proposed change will lower the bottom threshold from the current Body Mass Index (BMI) of 16 to 15 while raising the upper limit from the current 35 to 40. Therefore, the number of those who are underweight and overweight who can join the army as active duty soldiers will increase
In general, a BMI of 18.4 or less is considered underweight, while a BMI of 30 to 34.9 is considered obese, 35 to 39.9 as very obese and 40 or more as severely obese.
Ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said the change was not made explicitly to increase the number of conscriptions, but because it would not interfere with the fulfilment of mandatory service obligations under the proposed thresholds. — The Korea Herald/ANN
