Forced conscription used to quell student activism in 1980s

A group of military personnel is searching for the remains of the Silmido unit.

Military also executed soldiers with impunity, study finds

Former president Chun Doo-hwan ordered conscription of student activists in the early 1980s, according to a government investigation. In the process, students who should have been exempted from military service due to physical or health impairments were drafted into the army.

In addition, according to the investigation, four members of the Silmido unit, which was established in April 1968 with the main mission of assassinating late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, were executed by high-ranking officials of the unit without legal procedure.

The revelations are part of an investigation conducted by a fact-finding panel of the Ministry of National Defense.

According to the results of the one-year investigation released by the panel on July 13, the Chun administration conscripted 1,152 university student activists against their will between September 1980 and November 1984. Additionally, the authoritarian government conscripted 1,192 additional student activists between September 1982 and December 1984 under the so-called "Green Project." Some have said the forced conscription program was named as such because the government sought to turn "Reds" into "Greens," or deradicalize the student activists through physical and emotional violence.

At that time, much as today, military service was mandatory for South Korean men, but students were allowed automatic deferral. However, in the case of the student activists drafted, their service time frame was mandated and they were not granted deferment.

It was also confirmed that the Chun dictatorship engaged in beatings and other violent acts during the so-called Green Project. The panel said that most of the draftees were treated harshly and suffered various human rights abuses by the security units during the term of their service. Moreover, they were required to inform on colleagues to their security units, the committee revealed.

The Silmido unit was founded by the Korea Central Intelligence Agency, predecessor of the National Intelligence Service, under the direction of former president Park Chung-hee. Members of the unit were all normal civilians drafted into the military for financial rewards which were never given to them, not convicts or servicemen on active duty, as the government had previously alleged.