Starting from next year, men who haven’t finished high school but have no health problems will serve as active-duty soldiers. 

The Military Manpower Administration announced on Wednesday that it was issuing an administrative notice of revisions to the military service law which would abolish the academic background criteria for active duty.

Under the current standard, men are assigned based on their academic background and physical grade. Men who haven’t graduated high school or middle school are assigned to reserve duty, regardless of their physical status. 

Reserve-duty soldiers serve their mandatory military service as social work personnel. However, currently men who do not meet the academic requirement but receive physical grades one through three are allowed to serve as active duty if they wish to do so.

Once the revisions are put in place next year, all men will be required to enlist for active duty regardless of their academic background if they have no health issues. It marks the first time in the nation’s history for such a limit to be fully scrapped.