“We have parents who lure their children here by telling them that they were going on vacation to the beach,” said Lt. Byun Jin-seok. “Their parents drop the kids here and practically run away.” The children find themselves transported from the world of video games and junk food to a Spartan beachhead where unforgiving drill sergeants boast that they can make cows bark and dogs moo. The campers are required to turn in their cellphones and to eat and sleep in marine barracks, getting up at 6:30 a.m. and going to bed at 10:30 p.m.

Image Credit... The New York Times

The teenagers do push-ups and deep knee bends. With barking sergeants tailing them, groups of puffing teenagers charge into freezing water, balancing 265-pound rubber boats on their heads.

Here they are nothing more than numbers. No. 227 is Kim Ki-seol, the teenager who slept through the amphibious landing exercise. “My parents sent me here because I always pick fights with my brother and play computer games too much,” he said glumly, looking at his sand-caked sneakers. “They said I should learn the value of family while training here.” He added: “I wish this program would be over soon.”

Kim Soo-ram, a cheerful 13-year-old, said, “I thought my parents were joking” about coming here. She added: “I was virtually dragged in here. But now I kind of look cool in the uniform.”

Kim Min-seung and Kim Seung-hun, pale 14-year-old twins from Seoul with identical black-rimmed glasses, said their mother sent them here to shake them out of their lazy ways. “The hardest part is getting up early,” Min-seung said. “Once this thing is over and I go home, the first thing I want to do is to sleep.”

Many of the children brought here against their will are not eager to participate. Some refuse to get up in the morning, said Maj. Lee Yun-se.

During a training session on the beach, the teenagers complained of stiff necks and backaches. One boy, quivering in pants drenched with seawater and with tears in his eyes, asked a sergeant to find his lost shoe. At least some youths do change their attitudes by the end of the program, instructors and participants said.