26 points
It is a huge number of people for a huge amount of time, but it’s also worth bearing in mind that something like a third of North Korean men end up exempted from service, usually for educational reasons but also medical ones as well. You can also transfer out to go to college if you qualify.
Also, a huge part of “military” service is just doing work. Soldiers are used as extra bodies on farms and construction sites pretty regularly, and in the event of an emergency they’re pretty much the first ones to respond and the last ones to leave. If the DPRK ever feels like it’s safe to demilitarize, they will almost certainly keep some form of this aspect of service alive since it’s an incredibly useful thing for a society to have.
