"Volunteers Line Up to Serve: 5,000 Apply for Military Service in France, with 20% Women"

Ten-Month Service with a Monthly Salary of 1,390,000 Won
Goal to Reach 10,000 Volunteers by 2028

About twice as many people as the recruitment quota applied for the voluntary military service system introduced by the French government to strengthen its defense capabilities.

France has introduced a voluntary military service system this year to strengthen its defense capabilities against potential threats from Russia. More than 20% of the applicants are women, which is higher than the current 17% female ratio in the military. Getty Images

According to Yonhap News, citing AFP on the 29th, French military authorities announced on the 28th (local time) that about 5,000 men and women aged 18 to 25 had applied to become volunteers. This far exceeds this year's recruitment quota of 3,000.

The military authorities stated, "As of mid-May, about 1,000 applicants have already been selected, and more than 4,000 applications are either being completed or under review."

More than 20% of the applicants are women, which is higher than the current 17% female ratio in the military.

The head of the Ministry of Defense's National Service Project said, "These results clearly demonstrate the willingness of our youth to participate." He mentioned that additional applications would be possible until the end of summer and called for the continued interest of many young people.

President Macron announcing the introduction of the voluntary military service system last November. Photo by Yonhap News

The selected volunteers will begin their 10-month service within French territory starting from September this year. France plans to increase the number of volunteers to 4,000 next year and expand it to 10,000 by 2028.

After the end of the Cold War, France determined that a large-scale conscription model was no longer necessary and, during the presidency of Jacques Chirac in 1997, suspended the universal mandatory military service system, switching to a professional volunteer-based military. Currently, the French military consists of around 200,000 active-duty soldiers and 47,000 reservists.

France introduced the volunteer system this year to strengthen its defense capabilities against potential threats from Russia. The monthly salary during the service period is 800 euros before tax, which is approximately 1,390,000 won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.