Asia South Korean "comfort women" win first legal battle against Japan
A South Korean military woman who was expelled from the army after undergoing a sex change surgery has been found dead, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
The body of
Byun Hee-soo
was found at his home in Cheongju, to the south of Seoul.
The police have opened an investigation.
Byun Hee-soo, a 20-year-old sergeant, voluntarily enlisted in the military in 2017, before undergoing surgery in Thailand for a sex change.
Compared to other Asian countries,
South Korea is deeply conservative
on aspects of sexual identity and homosexual relations between the military are liable to be penalized.
Turning into a woman, she communicated to her hierarchy her desire to continue in the army.
A military commission
ordered his expulsion from the military institution in January 2020
, since the Defense Ministry considered that the loss of his genitalia constituted a mental and physical problem.
Following his expulsion, Byun came out of anonymity to defend his cause.
"I am a military officer of the Republic of Korea," he said in a shaky voice.
He explained that being in the military was a childhood dream but said he suffered from depression due to "gender dysphoria" or gender identity disorder.
Hence your choice of surgery.
"I want to show everyone, regardless of my sexual identity, I can be one of the great soldiers defending the country," he said.
"Please give me this opportunity,"
the young woman implored.
Military service is compulsory in South Korea, where the army is primarily tasked with protecting the territory from the threat from the north.
Every fit man must serve two years of military service.
Byun was the first South Korean soldier to undergo a sexual identity change operation during his service.
International associations for the defense of human rights have long denounced that
consensual sexual relations between two people of the same sex continue to be a crime
in the eyes of South Korean military law.
The South Korean military relentlessly persecutes soldiers who have homosexual relationships, which can lead to two years in jail and forced labor if convicted by a court-martial.
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