Mandatory military service is seen as a rite of passage for young Korean males. With few exceptions, nearly half of the South Korean population undergoes military conscription. During military training, servicemen are required to attend two-hour sessions of psychological education, or jeongshin gyoyuk, on a weekly basis. Such education, however, has detrimental effects on integrating North Koreans into South Korean society.

Psychological education entails anti-North Korea, anti-Communist rhetoric. For example, one topic of the videos shown during jeongshin gyoyuk is how communist spies caused the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, which is meant to be a forewarning of what could happen if North Korean spies were to go unnoticed. Psychological education also includes propaganda that lauds President Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee and denounces North Korean leadership. A soldier who served in the Defense Security Command, a branch responsible for catching North Korean spies, said he was taught chants such as, “We will beat down those devilish red people” in military education. Another soldier who served as a sergeant in the ROK army recounts psychological education always stressing North Korea as the enemy. The sole focus of military education is to highlight North Korea’s flaws and atrocities.