[South Korea] Military Service and Footballers — Why Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae and Lee Kang-in Were Exempted, Who Served, and What Is at Stake in the Asian Games Final Against Japan

On the evening of 3 October, South Korea play Japan in the men's football final of the Asian Games at Toyota Stadium. For Korea it is a chance to win the tournament for a fourth time in a row, but for the players there is something else at stake: victory exempts them from military service. All three overage players, Yang Hyun-jun (Celtic), Eom Ji-sung (Swansea) and Lee Ki-hyuk (Gangwon), have yet to serve, and so have Europe-based youngsters such as Bae Jun-ho and Kim Ji-soo. Military service is essential to understanding Korean football, so here is how the system works and the history of the players who were exempted and those who served.

Military service in Korea — enlist by 28, 18 months in the army

Adult men in South Korea are required to do military service. It lasts 18 months in the army and marines, 20 months in the navy and 21 months in the air force. As a rule, men must enlist by the age of 28, and enlistment can be postponed only until 27. Footballers who join Sangmu, the team of the Armed Forces Athletic Corps, can keep playing in the K League while they serve. Applicants to Sangmu must be 27 or younger and go through a selection process. There used to be a police team as well.

Players at foreign clubs can postpone enlistment because they are employed abroad. But a postponement is not an exemption: when the deadline comes they have to go home and enlist, so the more successful a player is in Europe, the bigger the risk that his career is interrupted in his late twenties.

The exemption: an Olympic medal or Asian Games gold

The exception is the system for 'sports personnel' (arts and sports personnel). Under the Military Manpower Administration's rules, athletes who finish in the top three at the Olympics or win gold at the Asian Games qualify. After a short period of basic military training, they continue in their sport for 34 months (two years and ten months). During that time they must complete 544 hours of public service, and if they do not, their service is extended. Because it lets them carry on without a break, it is usually called a military exemption.

The 2002 World Cup — a special exemption for Park Ji-sung and nine others

Football's most famous case came at the 2002 World Cup co-hosted with Japan. When Korea got out of their group, captain Hong Myung-bo appealed directly to the president, and a special exemption was granted by adding a supplementary provision to the Military Service Act's enforcement decree. It covered the ten players who had not yet served: Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo, Ahn Jung-hwan, Cha Du-ri, Seol Ki-hyeon, Lee Chun-soo, Song Chong-gug, Choi Tae-uk, Hyun Young-min and Kim Nam-il. The team went on to reach the semi-finals, and Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo moved to Europe after the tournament. The World Cup exemption was extended to baseball's WBC in 2006, but both were abolished in 2007.

The tournaments that earned exemptions, and the main players

Tournaments that brought military exemptions (men's football, since the 2002 World Cup)

Tournament	Result	Final / third-place match	Main players exempted
2002 World Cup (Korea/Japan)	4th (special exemption)	—	Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo, Ahn Jung-hwan, Cha Du-ri, Seol Ki-hyeon, Lee Chun-soo and four others
2012 London Olympics	Bronze	Beat Japan 2-0 in the third-place match	Ki Sung-yueng, Koo Ja-cheol, Park Chu-young, Ji Dong-won, Kim Young-gwon, Jung Sung-ryong, Yun Suk-young, Baek Sung-dong, Kim Bo-kyung
2014 Asian Games, Incheon	Gold	Beat North Korea 1-0 (aet)	Lee Jae-sung, Kim Seung-gyu, Kim Shin-wook, Kim Jin-su, Jang Hyun-soo, Lim Chang-woo, Park Joo-ho
2018 Asian Games, Jakarta-Palembang	Gold	Beat Japan 2-1 (aet)	Son Heung-min, Hwang Hee-chan, Kim Min-jae, Hwang In-beom, Lee Seung-woo, Hwang Ui-jo, Jo Hyeon-woo
2022 Asian Games, Hangzhou (held in 2023)	Gold	Beat Japan 2-1	Lee Kang-in, Jeong Woo-yeong, Hong Hyun-seok, Seol Young-woo, Paik Seung-ho, Park Jin-seop, Lee Han-beom, Song Min-kyu, Eom Won-sang, Cho Young-wook

All 18 players qualified in 2012, and all 20 in 2018. In 2018 Hwang In-beom, who had already served nine months with the police team (Asan Mugunghwa), was released early. In Hangzhou in 2023 the players qualified except those who had already served, such as goalkeeper Kim Jung-hoon, who had completed his service with Sangmu.

The table shows that many of the Europe-based players at the heart of today's national team escaped military service through Asian Games gold. Kim Min-jae and Hwang Hee-chan won it in 2018, Lee Kang-in and Seol Young-woo in 2023. Put the other way, the Asian Games have become a tournament Korea simply have to win. That is why, at what is an age-group competition, they use their overage places on key players who have not yet served.

Son Heung-min — blocked in 2014, finally exempt in 2018

It took Son Heung-min a while to earn his exemption. He missed the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon because his club, Bayer Leverkusen, refused to release him: the Asian Games are not a FIFA tournament, so clubs have no obligation to let players go. Korea won gold without him. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Korea lost 1-0 to Honduras in the quarter-finals and missed out on a medal.

With his deadline approaching, Son went to the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang as an overage player with Tottenham's blessing. The final against Japan went to extra time, and Lee Seung-woo and Hwang Hee-chan scored from Son's set-ups to win 2-1, giving Son a gold medal as captain. In April and May 2020 he did three weeks of basic military training with the Marine Corps' 9th Brigade on Jeju Island, finishing first out of 157 trainees and receiving the top award. He was reported to have hit the target with all ten shots in marksmanship.

Park Chu-young's deferral row and the '4-minute exemption'

The system has caused plenty of controversy. In March 2012 it emerged that Park Chu-young, then at Monaco, had used a long-term residence permit there to get permission from the Military Manpower Administration to extend his stay abroad. The procedure could have pushed his enlistment back as far as the age of 37, and he was heavily criticised for appearing to dodge his service. At a press conference in June he promised to enlist as an active-duty soldier, but soon afterwards he won bronze at the London Olympics and was exempted after all. He scored the opening goal in the third-place match against Japan.

At the same Olympics, defender Kim Ki-hee qualified for the exemption by playing only about four minutes at the end of the third-place match. The rules at the time covered only players who had actually played, so the coach used his last substitution on him. The episode became known as the '4-minute exemption' and fed a debate that led to a 2020 change in the enforcement decree, under which unused substitutes also qualify.

Those who served — the army team Sangmu

Most players who miss out on an exemption serve with Sangmu while continuing to play. Founded in 1984, the club has moved from Gwangju (2002-2010) to Sangju (2011-2020) and Gimcheon (2021-). It cannot sign foreign players or play in the AFC Champions League, but with a squad of national-team-level players it is a serious side in the K League, finishing third in K League 1 in both 2024 and 2025.

Oh Hyeon-gyu is the best-known example of a player who got his service out of the way before moving to Europe. Doing so means a transfer does not depend on deferral deadlines or tournament results, and some players choose the same route. Sangmu itself is at a turning point: its agreement with the city of Gimcheon ends on 31 December 2026. In September the city announced it would not take the club over as a citizens' club, and Sangmu are already certain to drop to K League 2 wherever they finish in 2026. In 2027 they will start again in K League 2 with a new home still to be found. The police team, Asan Mugunghwa, was dissolved in 2019 after the conscripted police system was abolished.

Military service has also ended up in court. Suk Hyun-jun, who was playing in France, was refused an extension of his stay abroad in 2019 and did not comply with an order to return home, and was charged with violating the Military Service Act. At his first trial in June 2023 he received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Tonight's final — a fourth straight title and military exemptions at stake

Lee Min-sung's Asian Games squad is built around under-23 players, with nine of its 23 based in Europe. Iraq's withdrawal left the group stage at two games for Korea: a 4-1 win over Qatar, with an Eom Ji-sung hat-trick, and a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia. They beat Vietnam 4-0 in the quarter-finals, then came from behind against China in the semi-final on 30 September, winning 2-1 with goals from Lee Young-jun and Bae Jun-ho. Their opponents in the final are Japan, who have brought an under-21 team with no overage players and beat Uzbekistan on penalties in the semi-final. It is the third Asian Games in a row in which Korea and Japan have met in the final.

Clubs as of the squad announcement in July. Korean media have reported that Yang Hyun-jun, Eom Ji-sung and Lee Ki-hyuk have not yet served; for the other players, we list only those reported as not yet having served. The coach has said Lee Ki-hyuk and Yang Hyun-jun are unlikely to be fully fit for the final.

At these Games, Korea's baseball team beat Japan in their final to win gold, making 16 of their 24 players eligible for exemptions and reopening the debate over whether the system is fair. In 2018 a government working group proposed a cumulative points system that would add up results across several competitions, but it was dropped after opposition from the sports world. A single knockout result can still change the course of a player's life.

What about the dual national Castrop?

German-born Jens Castrop, who joined the Korea squad in 2025, holds both Korean and German nationality. A dual national from birth who has lived abroad since before turning 24 can postpone enlistment until 37, and the obligation ends at 38. However, the obligation is reported to apply if he stays in Korea for six months or more in a year or earns money there. When he was first called up he said he was talking to his manager about it and was just happy to be a national-team player for now.

Summary — military service, the other calendar of Korean football

You cannot tell the story of a Korean player's career without military service: when to enlist, whether he is picked for a tournament that offers an exemption, and how far he can get abroad before his deferral runs out. Results at the Asian Games and the Olympics have shaped transfers and even the make-up of the national team. Tonight's game against Japan is about more than the score.

Information as of 3 October 2026, before the Asian Games final. Service periods and rules are based on the Military Manpower Administration and Korean media reports. Reports differ on whether basic military training lasts three or four weeks, so we do not give a number (Son Heung-min did three weeks).