South Korea wants to expand the ranks of its army

2024-01-21T08:16:00.520Z

Highlights: South Korea wants to expand the ranks of its army. Lacking manpower, the army wants to lower its eligibility criteria for compulsory military service. This reform could force transgender women to participate in military service reserved for men. A decision that is controversial, because the South Korean army has been repeatedly singled out for homophobic and transphobic scandals. In 2021, a transgender conscript, Byun Hee-soo, ended her life after being harassed during her military service, according to a South Korean daily.

Lacking manpower, the South Korean army wants to lower its eligibility criteria for compulsory military service. This reform could force transgender women to participate in military service…

South Korea wants to expand the ranks of its army

Lacking manpower, the South Korean army wants to lower its eligibility criteria for compulsory military service.

This reform could force transgender women to participate in military service reserved for men.

A decision that is controversial, because the South Korean army has been repeatedly singled out for homophobic and transphobic scandals.

South Korean soldiers patrol near the border with North Korea, June 16, 2020 © AFP/Ed Jones

By: RFI Follow

with our correspondent in Seoul,

Célio Fioretti

Its numbers are decreasing.

The South Korean army, the bulk of whose forces depend on military conscripts, is struggling to fill its ranks.

Of the 260,000 soldiers expected next year, only 220,000 will be under the flag, the result of the

declining demographics

of the Land of Morning Calm.

Also read: South Korea: no military service for young fathers of large families?

To deal with these difficulties, the Ministry of Defense wishes to lower its fitness for service criteria.

But as the South Korean daily

Hankyoreh

reveals , these new measures could force transgender women, men who have become women, to join the army.

A reform strongly criticized by defenders of LGBT rights.

They denounce the

frequent cases of violence against homosexual or transgender people in the army

In 2021, Byun Hee-soo, a transgender conscript, ended her life after being harassed during her military service.

Even more recently, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex relations within the military, citing a risk to combat performance.

Also read: In South Korea, the masculinists' offensive against feminists

The Ministry of Defense, however, says it is listening to criticism of its reform.

South Korea wants to expand the ranks of its army

South Korea wants to expand the ranks of its army

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