“I can share everything from joy, sorrow to happiness on the web and all mothers and fathers who never met each other can be connected,” Oh said, quoted by Reuters.
“More importantly, we, online, can find out if our sons are okay.”
South Korean law requires all men to serve around two years of military because the Korean peninsula is technically still at war.
Last month‘s shooting spree at a Marine Corps base that left four dead, and mysterious suicide incidents, have sparked debate over military reforms, as well as parents’ interest in -- and worry about -- the fate of their sons.
82 soldiers committed suicide last year, about two thirds of the total death toll among serving military.
Now, more parents are getting involved in the online groups that are made to find out more about their sons. Experts are still saying that the changes aren‘t enough. They think that the soldiers should be allowed to use their cell phone networks and internet freely.
Others say that they should have weekend breaks.
“This is not a prison camp. Just as they do in the United States, we have to enable young military men to go out on weekends, ” said Lim Tae-hoon, president at the Center for Military Human Rights Korea.
“These online communities should play a more active role.” Although her sons’ air force bases are offering tours for parents as well as newsletters, Oh plans to keep using the web until her two sons are discharged.
“Now I can‘t give up on connecting to the web because I’m desperate to find out how they are after sending them off to the military,” she added.
(아주경제 송지영 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com