The Effects of South Korean Mandatory Military Service (at least the ones reported by the American media)
Recently I found a rare concurrence of my interests–baseball, school, and North Korea–through a combination of CNN.com and MLB.com. A little more than a month ago, Shin-Soo Choo and the South Korean national team defeated Taiwan in the Asian Games which guaranteed Choo an exemption from the South Korean military. You can find that article here. Choo is an excellent player, and by far the best player on the Cleveland Indians; however, there had been doubt if he would’ve been able to play because of South Korea’s mandatory military service. And on a related note, South Korean students are getting nervous about their mandatory enlistment because tensions with North Korea are very high. You can find that article here. Hopefully, North Korea becomes integrated with the rest of the world and then their society will realize that their county really is not the happiest place. And Shin-Soo Choo will get to star in the big leagues. And the Indians will still suck. Have a very happy (and politically correct) holiday!!
