"We are happy to hear that the Supreme Court of South Korea has made a historic decision to recognize the rights of conscientious objectors," said Paul Gillies, international spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses at their world headquarters in New York.
"For the last 65 years, over 19,300 Jehovah's Witnesses (in South Korea) have been imprisoned for standing firm for their Christian beliefs. This ruling is a huge step forward in ending this policy of imprisoning our fellow believers for conscientious objection."
However, the Thursday ruling will not affect those already in prison, and only applies to the cases considered by the court and those in future.
South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea. Despite massively reduced tensions on the peninsula, many people in the country are still broadly supportive of conscription, and conscientious objectors can face stigma and discrimination well beyond their jail terms.
Military service requirements have also derailed the careers of many of the country's
biggest sports stars and K-Pop artists, with hugely popular boy band Big Bang
having to go on hiatus so its members could perform their military service.
Earlier this year, a constitutional court
ruled the government must provide alternative civilian roles for those who decline to take up arms, clearing the way for most objectors to avoid jail, while in August, the Supreme Court began hearings into the matter for the first time in 14 years, with 900 cases before lower courts currently on hold.
Conservatives reacted angrily to that ruling, with the right-wing Liberty Korea Party putting forward a bill to force objectors to perform 44 months -- double the usual length -- of alternative service, including mine sweeping and other dangerous activities.
"This is a form of retaliatory punishment against conscientious objectors that is anachronistic and in violation of human rights," South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper
said in an editorial.
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