A Namsung who is performing alternative service instead of enlisting as an active-duty soldier for religious beliefs filed a lawsuit seeking to be allowed to serve while commuting from home on the grounds of raising a child, but lost.
The 13th division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Jin Hyun-seop) said on Feb. 6 that on Feb. 5 it dismissed a lawsuit filed by a person surnamed Yang against the Commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration and the Minister of the Ministry of Justice seeking to cancel the rejection of a request to apply the system of the full-time reservist.
Yang is a follower of a religion that refuses military training, and on Oct. 30, 2023, was called up as an alternative service member and served while living in a group at Hwaseong Vocational Training Prison. The government introduced the alternative service system on Oct. 26, 2020, for conscientious objectors based on religious or moral beliefs. Alternative service members serve in a group-living format for 36 months at correctional facilities such as prisons and detention centers, performing public-interest duties such as food service, laundry, and cleaning.
Among those subject to active-duty enlistment, the government allows people raising children to apply for selection as full-time reservists. Once designated a full-time reservist, after basic military training the person serves in areas related to local defense while commuting from home.
Yang had a daughter on Sept. 27, 2024. On May 12, 2025, Yang asked the Military Manpower Administration and the Ministry of Justice to allow performing alternative service in a commuting format by applying the full-time reservist system.
On May 20, 2025, the Military Manpower Administration rejected Yang's request. Citing the Alternative Service Act for Assignment to and Service in Alternative Service, which stipulates that alternative service members serve for 36 months in group living, and the Constitutional Court's view that not all conscription obligors with children are granted the right to commute from home, it gave those as grounds.
The Seoul Administrative Court panel said, "Unlike the Military Service Act, the Alternative Service Act does not provide exceptions to group-living service for alternative service members," adding, "Considering fairness with active-duty soldiers, who as a rule perform group-living service inside military units, suitability can be recognized."
It also found that the Alternative Service Act explicitly provides group living as the form of service for alternative service members, and that the Military Manpower Administration and the Ministry of Justice have no discretion to decide that alternative service members may commute from home.