South Korea nearly doubled wages for its rank-and-file conscripted soldiers on Tuesday but their pay will remain just a fraction of the country's minimum wage.

Salaries for conscripted privates were raised 88 percent from 163,000 won to 306,100 won ($288) a month, with privates first class and corporals enjoying similar increases.

But they remain far below South Korea's minimum wage of 10,000 won ($9.40) per hour.

President Moon Jae-In has promised to increase conscripts' pay to half the minimum wage by 2022.

As part of the changes, public servants' wages rose an average 2.6 percent, while Moon's own salary went up 2.27 percent to 225 million won a year.

Conscripts, most of them in their early 20, account for the lion's share of the military's 690,000 active personnel.

All able-bodied South Korean men between 18 and 35 are obliged to perform military service for about two years.

They are plunged into a world of harsh military discipline, often after a cosseted childhood, and the experience can be daunting, particularly for those posted to the border with North Korea.

Barrack-room bullying has been blamed for numerous suicides and incidents where conscripts have turned their weapons on their comrades.

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Trump pushes back over Trump N. Korea quote
Washington (AFP) Jan 14, 2018
US President Donald Trump pushed back at a report that he had suggested he had a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, saying he had been misquoted. The Wall Street Journal quoted Trump as saying in an interview Thursday: "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un." But the White House insisted he said "I'd," not "I", and Trump followed up in a tweet on ... read more

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