By Kim Ji-hyun

South Korea's defence ministry is considering recruiting women as rank-and-file solders to help fill a personnel void, officials said Thursday.

"The ministry is considering introducing a system in which women can volunteer to serve in the rank and file," an official said on condition of anonymity. The plans appear to have been included in a recent military report.

The report said the ministry is seeking to complete a feasibility study on the issue by 2011.

Women currently serve only in ranks of the petty officer or higher. There is no system in place permitting or obligating South Korean women to serve in the military as rank-and-file officers.

The feasibility plan comes amid escalating social calls for women to play a part in mandatory military service.

This is the first time that the defence ministry would formally review the issue.

But officials stressed that it seems unlikely for the military to try and recruit women for lower positions that do not pay.

"Females who apply for the military apply not only to serve the nation, but also for the salaries. It is a job for them. So it seems unlikely that they would voluntarily serve as a petty officer with almost zero financial compensation," one defence ministry official told The Korea Herald, speaking anonymously.

Soldiers serving mandatory military service are paid around 80,000 won (US$70) a month.

The financial downturn also would not be much of an incentive for the women to join, he said, because men in financial troubles choose to join the military because they will be eventually conscripted.

"Women have a choice, and they may not choose the military over other job options," the official pointed out.

But diminishing military manpower has surfaced as a core concern for the Defense Ministry as the country faces a direct security threat from North Korea.

Although Seoul's conventional weapons are said to overwhelm Pyongyang, the North is said to have deployed chemical and biological weapons, in addition to a nuclear arsenal it tested twice over the past few years.

Part of the biggest causes of the thinning military force is due to the fact that South Korea suffers from one of the world's lowest birth rates. According to recent figures from the World Health Organisation, the country recorded an average of 1.2 babies per woman of reproductive age.

As conscription incentives, the defence ministry has recently said it was reviewing reviving the system of offering additional credits or points for men who have served when they apply at state-run companies or public offices.

Civic groups on gender equality protest the move, claiming that the system was eradicated because it was deemed unequal for female applicants.