Jehovah’s Witnesses

Conscientious Objectors

South Korea
April 2011

Currently, there are 842 of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are imprisoned in South Korea. They have been charged under South Korea’s Military Service Act for their conscientious refusal of military service based on religious grounds. Since 1950, there have been 16,224 of Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced to a combined total of 31,094 years for refusing to perform military service. The names, grounds (under Military Service Act*), duration of sentence, and present locations of detention are as follows:

* Article 88, Section 1 states: If a person who has received a draft notice for active duty or Notice of Summons (including Notice of Summons for voluntary enrollment), without justifiable cause, does not report for service within the period specified in the following clauses or refuses the summons, then he shall be sentenced to a prison term of three years or less. However, if a person who receives a notice summoning him to get a physical checkup as a part of a wartime draft fails to participate in a one-time checkup, then he will be sentenced to a prison term of no more than six months, a fine of no more than two million won, or be detained.