Court Rules "Military Service Period Before Civil Servant Appointment Must Naturally Be Included in Employment Period"

Court: "Former Public Officials Pension Act Subjects Naturally Included in Military Service Period"

A court ruling has determined that military service periods prior to appointment as a public official must naturally be included in the service period for pension calculation.

The Administrative 13th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Park Jeong-dae) announced on the 20th that it ruled in favor of plaintiff A in a lawsuit filed against the Government Employees Pension Service, requesting the cancellation of the disapproval of the application to include military service periods before appointment.

A served as a public official from 1990 to 2008, was reappointed in 2015, and retired in 2018. After retirement, in 2020, A applied to the pension service to include his military service period in his service record, but was denied on the grounds that under the current Government Employees Pension Act, applications to include military service periods are only possible "while serving as a public official." A had previously served as a Navy military officer candidate (1974?1976) and as a reserve naval crew member (1976?1978).

The court ruled in favor of A. The bench held that the Government Employees Pension Act applicable during A’s 18 years of service from 1990 should be applied. The Act was amended in 2000; under the old law, military service periods were automatically included in the service period without the need for an application by the individual. However, the amended law requires the individual to apply "directly while serving as a public official" for inclusion.

The court stated, "The pension service should have examined whether A’s military service record qualified for inclusion in the service period and made a decision accordingly, but it erred by rejecting the application solely on the formal ground that A did not apply during his service period."