{"id":6502,"date":"2016-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/south-korean-co-released-from-prison\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:07:11","slug":"south-korean-co-released-from-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/south-korean-co-released-from-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean CO released from prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Sang-Min Lee freed after 15 months in jail for refusing mandatory military conscription<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA &#8211; Sang-Min Lee, a South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector (CO) has been released from prison. Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete the government\u2019s mandatory military service.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report from Kyong-Jung Kim, Lee was freed on 30 July 2015, after serving only 15 months of his sentence. Kim is Mennonite World Conference Northeast Asia representative and director of the Korea Anabaptist Center, a ministry of the Anabaptist churches of South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the power of our prayers that enabled Sang-Min to endure the hardship of his prison life,\u201d said Kim in an email correspondence announcing Lee\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p>Kim explained that Lee was released three months early because of his service work while in prison. \u201cHe worked as a barber,\u201d Kim said. \u201cHe was relatively well treated by others because of his work but, more importantly, he was in our prayers all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robert (Jack) Suderman, secretary of the MWC Peace Commission, expressed gratitude for Lee\u2019s faithful witness in the midst of a difficult situation. \u201cHis story was an inspiration at the MWC Assembly in Pennsylvania this year,\u201d Suderman said.<\/p>\n<p>Global Youth Summit participants were particularly inspired and reportedly filled a book of encouragement notes for Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Kim notes that although Lee is no longer imprisoned, his refusal to accept the South Korean government\u2019s military service will have lingering consequences. Lee now has a criminal record, which will prevent him from finding employment at many businesses and in government-related offices.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, he faces the challenge of rejection by those who do not support conscientious objection, which includes many Korean Christians, who do not see military service as incompatible with their faith.<\/p>\n<p>Because of its strictly enforced mandatory military service with no option for alternate service for COs, South Korea has the highest CO imprisonment rate in the world. In 2013, the United Nations\u2019 Human Rights Council reported that 92.5 percent of the world\u2019s imprisoned COs are in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Most South Korean COs are Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses; Lee is the first Mennonite CO in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease continue to remember the rest of COs who are in prison,\u201d urged Kim, \u201cand pray for the Korean churches\u2019 active participation in non-violence and the peace movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2013 Devin Manzullo-Thomas<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sang-Min Lee freed after 15 months in jail for refusing mandatory military conscription Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA &#8211; Sang-Min Lee, a South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector (CO) has been released from prison. Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete the government\u2019s mandatory military service. According [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"network":[178],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-6502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","network-young-anabaptists"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>South Korean CO released from prison - Mennonite World Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/south-korean-co-released-from-prison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Korean CO released from prison - Mennonite World Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sang-Min Lee freed after 15 months in jail for refusing mandatory military conscription Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA &#8211; Sang-Min Lee, a South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector (CO) has been released from prison. Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete the government\u2019s mandatory military service. 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