Hong Joon-pyo criticises politicians over debate on scrapping athletes' service exemption

Hong Joon-pyo, a former mayor of Daegu, criticised politicians on 8 October for debating whether to abolish the military service exemption for athletes. "Seeing the political world get excited over a single remark by an immature young player, one can glimpse the level of Korean politics," he wrote on Facebook. He added that it was "truly pathetic" that politicians were discussing whether to keep or scrap, over one player's remark, a system created to motivate amateur sports. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Hong asked how long military exemption had been part of the rewards for an Asian Games gold medal, and why there was an uproar only now. He called talk of an era of declining military manpower "absurd" and told the Defence Ministry to deal firmly with the landmine situation along the armistice line. "How many gold medallists are there, that all the athletes who raised the nation's prestige are reduced to targets of criticism? These are nothing but populists," he wrote. He ended by asking whether, while the separation of powers was being shaken and the country was heading into an era of dictatorship, that was all the parliamentary audit could do. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

The debate followed remarks by some members of the men's football team after they won gold at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Korea Economic Daily reported that captain Lee Ki-hyuk (이기혁) told reporters "I'm not going to the military", that Yang Min-hyuk (양민혁) said in an interview that medals and trophies did not matter and that he seemed to have played only for the military exemption, and that Park Seung-soo (박승수) posted a photo on social media of himself wearing a discharge cap right after the match. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Politicians from both ruling and opposition parties then called for changes to the arts and sports exemption, and questions on it were raised during the parliamentary audit. At the National Assembly's National Defence Committee audit on 7 October, Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul (강신철) said the ministry's goal was to gradually reduce and ultimately abolish the exemption. Korea Economic Daily also quoted him as saying he deeply regretted the belittling of the sacred duty of national defence. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Hankook Ilbo reported that the Defence Ministry said at a regular briefing on 6 October that it would pursue reducing and abolishing supplementary service, including arts and sports personnel, citing declining military manpower and fairness among those liable for service. The paper said the system was introduced in 1973 and read Hong's post as aimed at the politicians who called for changes at the audit the day before. Newsis noted that the system has been run as a reward for national team athletes' participation and results in international competitions. [ 3 , 4 ]