More than 1,000 Korean men living overseas have returned home to serve in the military over the past six years, according to the Korean Army Training Center.

Ever since the Army began offering a pre-training program at a boot camp in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province in 2007, 1,038 men with foreign residency have trained there.

The one-week pre-training is designed to provide overseas Korean men with no experience here with basic instruction on Korean history and culture to help them adapt to the new environment in the military.

The number of overseas Koreans trained at the camp gradually increased from 113 in 2007 to 147 in 2008 and 198 in 2009. It jumped to 263 in 2010, and stood at 251 last year.

So far 66 overseas men have joined the army this year and 51 of them are currently training at the camp, according to the training center.

Under the Military Service Act, all able Korean men over 18 must fulfill their military service, but Koreans who obtain foreign citizenship at birth in other countries or after emigration are exempt from duty.

The military officials say the growing number of overseas men are finding the nearly two-year mandatory military service to be a pathway to understanding Korea and its society.

According to the army camp, the majority of participants said recently in a survey that their reason for joining the Korean army is to “be recognized as a Korean.”

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)