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 “D.P.”, short for Deserter
Pursuit, has been among the top Netflix shows in
South Korea since it premiered at the end of
August.
The series follows military police assigned to
capture deserters, shining a light on daily life
for many conscripts, including mental and
physical abuse from other soldiers.
Director Han Jun-hee said he sought to tell a
humanising story about how the system makes
deserters both victims and criminals, as well as
the toll it takes on those forced to do the
hunting.
"'D.P' is a story of tracing a deserter, but at
the same time, it is a paradoxical story of
looking for someone's unfortunate son, brother,
or lover," Han told Reuters in an email.
Asked about the popularity of the show, a
defence ministry spokesman said that the
military environment has changed and that the
ministry has tried to stamp out abuse and harsh
treatment.
Last week the military announced that even
before the series came out, it had planned to do
away with the system of having rank-and-file
soldiers track down AWOL comrades. That change
will go into effect in July 2022.
South Korea maintains an active duty military of
550,000, with 2.7 million troops in reserves,
amid decades of tensions with North Korea. All
men must serve for up to 21 months, depending on
the military branch.
South Korea's military criminal law punishes
desertion by up to 10 years in prison.
The Defence Ministry says abuse and desertion
among conscripts are down, largely because of a
2019 decision to allow enlisted soldiers to use
cellphones in their barracks.
The ministry declined to confirm the exact
number of deserters, but South Korean media
reported that 55 cases were reported last year,
down from 78 in 2019. Military deaths by suicide
also dropped from 27 to 15 in the same period.
HEATED DEBATE
The series landed as the country debates the
future of conscription and the potential for
abuse, particularly as young men facing dim
economic prospects have complained of losing
time to military service that they could have
spent on studies or work.
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 In 2018 a Supreme Court ruling
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-southkorea-military-
idUKKCN1N63GP for the first time found that
conscientious objection is a valid reason to
forgo military service. Parliament last year
passed a bill allowing K-Pop stars to postpone
their military service
https://www.reuters.com/article/
southkorea-kpop-idUSKBN28B4GH to when they are
30. The military has been rocked
by multiple sexual abuse scandals this year,
prompting lawmakers to pass a law that sex abuse
and violent crime in the military will be
handled by civilian courts. Reaction to the series among former conscripts
has been mixed, with some saying it mirrored
their experiences, others saying its depictions
of abuse are overblown, and some avoiding the
show altogether to prevent traumatic memories
from resurfacing.
 "There is a scene in D.P. where they throw
combat boots (at the soldier). I went through a
lot of similar harassments," said Ma Joon-bin,
who described his time between 2013 and 2014 as
the "dark ages." "Now that I look back I feel it
was unfair, but back then it was so common."
Lee Jun-tae, 24, who served from 2017 to 2019,
said he had never experienced or heard of any of
his friends suffering abuse during their
service.
"There was no harsh treatment during my time,"
he said.
Last week the presidential favorite for the
ruling party, Lee Jae-myung, called the stories
in the series a "barbaric history" of South
Korea. Hong Joon-pyo, an opposition party
candidate, has said he endured cruelty as a
soldier and pledged to consider moving to
voluntary military service.
Ending conscription won't solve all the problems
if broader military culture doesn't change as
well, said pop culture critic Kim Hern-sik, who
served as a D.P.
"As long as there is military service, whether
mandatory or voluntary conscription system,
problems are inevitable one way or another," Kim
said.
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Additional reporting
by Yeni Seo, Daewoung Kim, Dogyun Kim; Editing
by Josh Smith and Gerry Doyle)
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