Disabled Cyclist Park Chan-jong Invokes Issues in the Administrative System
Park Chan-jong, a national cycling representative who lost one leg due to a traffic accident, has revealed his experience of receiving a civil defense training summons last year, raising concerns about the inefficiency of the administrative system for people with disabilities.
On the 14th, Park Chan-jong (35), a national cycling athlete and YouTuber, shared a video titled “I Lost a Leg, But I Received a Civil Defense Summons” on his YouTube channel 'CJ PARK.'
In the video, Park stated that he received the civil defense summons and headed to the training venue while wearing a prosthesis on his left leg.
He mentioned, “When registering as a person with a disability, I had to sign a lot of documents, but despite that, for auto tax discounts, they say to go to the district office tax department, for electricity discounts, go to KEPCO, and for city gas discounts, go to the city gas office.”
He continued, “It turns out that all benefits for people with disabilities have to be applied for. On the other hand, if you register your birth, military summons automatically comes out; however, even after registering as a person with a disability, I was told to show up for civil defense training.”
Park had undergone a significant surgery to amputate his left leg after being hit by a 5-ton truck while cycling home in September 2022.
At that time, he had one training session remaining for reserve forces, but due to the impact of COVID-19, he only received civil defense training.
What was even more disconcerting was the environment of the training venue.
Park asserted, “They even told me that there was no parking space, so I had to walk there.”
Additionally, the training venue was located in the basement, and there were neither elevators nor escalators, which forced him to struggle down the stairs. The prosthesis makes it difficult to navigate stairs.
At the scene, Park faced an even bigger shock when he was informed by a staff member that, “If you have received a disability grade, you need to go to the community center to submit your disability certificate and apply for exclusion from civil defense arrangement.”
Ultimately, he had to return to the community center to apply for exclusion from the arrangement.
Park expressed, “Since the community center handles this anyway, wouldn’t it prevent the occurrence of me receiving a civil defense summons at home if I could apply for it all at once when registering as a person with a disability? However, the community center said, ‘This has to be applied for separately.’”
He emphasized, “It would be nice if young men registering as persons with disabilities could be informed that they should apply for exclusion from reserve forces or civil defense arrangements together.”
In the description of the video, Park mentioned that he forgot about the video after creating it last year and later posted it. He stated, “The moment a person who has lived their whole life without disabilities goes to the community center to register as a person with a disability is not likely to be a joyous moment for anyone. After mustering the courage to register, if a military service, reserve forces, or civil defense summons arrives later, it will shake one’s heart once again. I hope that the administrative system in our country becomes a little more delicate and considerate towards the citizens’ feelings.”
YouTube 'CJ PARK'
Image source: youtube 'cj park'
