In April, a Private First Class in an army unit in Gyeonggi-do jumped from the barracks building and injured his spine. He was a soldier from a multicultural background born to a Chinese father and a North Korean defector mother. He claimed that he had been ostracized by his unit members due to his lack of fluency in Korean. Although he repeatedly requested consultation and resolution, commissioned officers responded indifferently.

A survey, conducted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in April and May, officially confirmed that soldiers from multicultural backgrounds have been mocked in their units because of their race and origin. Among them, 56.3% of these soldiers, as well as 61.1% of their fellow soldiers, cited language barriers as the greatest difficulty in communication between each other while in military service. Nevertheless, there is no system at the training camp to assess soldiers’ language proficiency and thus reflect it in their job assignments. Placing soldiers with limited Korean proficiency in critical roles risks causing confusion and safety incidents.

Meanwhile, although the Ministry of National Defense (MND) regulations require multicultural awareness training to be conducted at least twice a year, only 12.7% of soldiers reported receiving training. The NHRC pointed out that the program should not remain a one-off event but be integrated into the regular curriculum to enhance its effectiveness. Multicultural soldiers also face discrimination in the leave and travel expense policies, with some soldiers forced to give up leave or pay millions of KRW at their own expense.

According to the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, the number of multicultural soldiers is expected to reach about 10,000 by 2030, accounting for 5% of all soldiers. However, the NHRC noted that the MND does not grasp the status of multicultural soldiers under the pretext of treating them equally with regular soldiers. The NHRC stated, “Treating all soldiers equally and not discriminating against them is a different matter from supporting soldiers who have difficulty adapting to an army unit.” It emphasized, “The MND needs to identify soldiers who require assistance and establish a systematic management plan.”