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With an unpredictable and oft times hostile neighbor to their north, and a divided peninsula that North and South Korea both claim as their own, the military readiness of South Korea is a constant concern.
South Korea maintains the world’s sixth largest number of active troops, the world's second-largest number of reserve troops. Their defense budget is the 12th largest in the world.
Anything that might reduce that readiness is viewed with alarm, and so today the South Korean Military has enacted a number of drastic measures to try to reduce the spread of the H1N1 virus among their ranks.
This from the Korea Times.
Military Takes Drastic Measures Against Flu
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Soldiers have been barred from taking leave and getting overnight passes or receiving visits from outside in order to block the transmission of the fast-spreading influenza A (H1N1) virus.
Training schedules for reserve forces, about 300,000 in total, have also been cancelled, the Ministry of National Defense announced Wednesday.
Those who are confirmed as patients or are suspected of contracting the flu will have their mandatory military drafting deferred.
"To contain transmission, the commanders will be given discretion in troop mobilization," a ministry official said. "Soldiers will be discharged as scheduled and be given emergency leave, but regular holidays and overnight passes will be suspended."
A total of 1,455 soldiers were confirmed as patients as of Wednesday. A total of 1,369 have fully recovered, with the rest being treated at military hospitals.
The defense ministry will have vaccinated its medical staff by Thursday and complete all inoculations by February.
The National Emergency Management Agency suspended the training of 650,000 members of the civil defense corps.
The measures came as the central government raised the national alert level to its highest Wednesday.
