An old military-exemption system for athletes deserves a fresh look
At some point, the Asian Games became a competition for Korean athletes seeking exemption from mandatory military service.
South Korea beat Japan 1-0 in the men’s soccer final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, securing a fourth consecutive title. The victory means that 20 of the national team’s 23 players, excluding the three who have already completed their military duty, will receive military-service exemptions.
But remarks by some players have drawn criticism. In a postgame interview, Yang Min-hyuk said, “The medal and winning the championship weren’t important. I played the game with only one thing in mind — the reward of a military-service exemption.”
Shortly after the victory, Park Seung-soo posted a photo of himself wearing a reserve forces cap, known in South Korea as a “military discharge cap,” in the locker room, seemingly showing that he had, in effect, completed his military service.
At a postgame news conference, captain Lee Gi-hyuk held up his gold medal and said, “I’m not going to the military.”
After several players appeared to emphasize their military-service exemptions immediately after winning gold, People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo sharply criticized them on Facebook on Sunday.
His post was titled, “A national soccer team boasting that its players won’t have to serve in the military — Is military service something to be avoided? Are soldiers who lost an ankle for their country fools?”
As the controversy grew, the players issued a series of apologies.
The controversy was not confined to soccer. South Korea defeated Japan 3-1 in the baseball final, winning its fifth consecutive Asian Games gold. Yet Japan’s silver-medal team consisted of corporate-team employees, while South Korea fielded professional players. South Korea had been routed 5-0 by Japan on Sept. 25 and then barely scraped out a victory in the final.
To call such a performance an enhancement of national prestige and reward it with military-service exemptions is difficult to justify. The public can only shake its head in disbelief.
Of the 24 baseball players on South Korea’s roster, 16 will receive military-service exemptions. Of the remaining eight, seven had already received exemptions for winning gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, while the other had completed his military service.
The system is even more questionable in team events. In individual events, only medal winners are eligible. In team events, however, every player on the roster qualifies, even if he never plays a minute and spends the entire competition on the bench. This inevitably raises the question of whether some teams are being assembled partly to secure military-service exemptions for their members.
Few would object to exemptions for Olympic gold medalists. But there is considerable doubt about whether an Asian Games gold should warrant the same benefit.
South Korea grants exemptions to athletes who finish in the top three at the Olympics or win gold at the Asian Games. The system was created 53 years ago, when South Korea had yet to win an Olympic gold medal and desperately needed international sporting achievements to raise its profile. As the country won more medals after the 1988 Seoul Olympics, eligibility was narrowed to Olympic top-three finishers and Asian Games gold medalists.
But South Korea is no longer the country it was then. There are now many more ways to enhance national prestige than winning gold medals, while some Asian Games events are far from world-class in their level of competition.
Handing out military-service exemptions for relatively easy gold medals is plainly unfair and, above all, an affront to the vast majority of young men who faithfully fulfill their military obligations.
South Korea now stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s leading nations. The days when finishing first in Asia could meaningfully enhance the country’s national prestige are long gone. It is time to reconsider whether it makes sense to maintain a system created 53 years ago, when South Korea was far less competitive in sports.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
