Korean social media posts have repeatedly shared a false claim that South Korean men are exempted from mandatory military service if they reside in Daeseong-dong -- a village located within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea -- for a period of one year and eight months. A spokesperson for the country's conscription agency told AFP this exemption only applies to residents who lived in the village prior to the Korean War and their direct descendants, and only if they live there for at least eight months of the year.

"Wow, what is this place?" reads a Korean-language post shared on October 9, 2022 by a Facebook page with more than 410,000 followers.

It links to an article about Daeseong-dong, a remote village in the South Korean section of the DMZ that separates North and South Korea, on the tabloid website "Principles of Knowledge".

The article is titled "A place where anyone can be exempt from taxes and military service if they reside for a year and eight months".

It says that in order to become a Daeseong-dong resident, one must either be born there and live in the village for just a year and eight months, or marry into a family residing in the village.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured November 1, 2022.

The village is formally under the jurisdiction of United Nations Command, as it is within the DMZ, but Daeseong-dong residents are still South Korean citizens.

All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve in the military...

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