Asked about improvements they felt were needed during military life, soldiers most often cited the right to rest, including off-post leave, vacations and working hours. Junior officers focused on unit management, such as managing subordinates and workload, while civilian employees showed strong interest in improving discrimination, including welfare conditions.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on the 10th that a comprehensive analysis of 163 on-site reports submitted by 50 members of the "2025 Military Human Rights Monitoring" found these results. From May to Nov., the monitoring group identified problems in areas such as barracks life experiences and regular military human rights interests over five rounds and proposed remedies.
When the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reviewed the monitoring group's proposals and classified them into six areas, barracks culture and working environment accounted for 104 cases (36.5%), the most. That was followed by personnel, service systems and rights protection with 85 cases (29.8%); medical care and welfare with 58 cases (20.4%); and gender equality, discrimination and violence with 18 cases (6.3%).
Looking at key proposals, there were complaints that group KakaoTalk chat rooms in the military were being used as channels for work orders outside working hours, effectively forcing overtime and infringing on the right to rest. There were also calls to expand access to medical care—such as a rapid approval system for treatment, telemedicine and mobile medical teams—during frontline, remote and at-sea duty.
Based on the monitoring results, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) plans to draw up a military human rights work plan and, if necessary, conduct on-site visits and fact-finding investigations and continue with recommendations for institutional improvements.