South Korean Military Service Death

Pinterent    Februari 10, 2024    Comment   

South Korean transgender soldier Byun Hee-soo, who has been found dead, appealed publicly to remain in the army during a press conference in Seoul in January 2020. Photograph: YONHAP/AFP via Getty ImagesView image in fullscreen

South Korean transgender soldier Byun Hee-soo, who has been found dead, appealed publicly to remain in the army during a press conference in Seoul in January 2020. Photograph: YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images

South Korea’s first transgender soldier, who was forcibly discharged after having gender reassignment surgery, has been found dead, news agency Yonhap has reported.

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Firefighters found Byun Hee-soo, 23, in her home in Cheongju, south of Seoul, after a mental health counsellor called emergency services to report that she had not been heard from since Sunday, the agency reported on Wednesday.

The defence ministry classified her loss of male genitals as a mental or physical handicap, and a military panel ruled in early 2020 that Byun would be compulsorily discharged. South Korea prohibits transgender people from joining the military, and Byun was the first active-duty soldier to have gender reassignment surgery.

Byun had previously waived her anonymity to appear at a press conference at the time to plead to be allowed to serve, wearing her fatigues and saluting the gathered journalists and cameras.

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“I’m a soldier of the Republic of Korea, ” she said, her voice breaking. Serving in the military had always been her childhood dream, she said.

“Putting aside my sexual identity, I want to show everyone that I can be one of the great soldiers defending this country, ” she continued. “Please give me that chance.”

South Korea remains deeply conservative about matters of sexual and gender identity and is less tolerant of LGBT+ rights than some other parts of Asia, with many gay and transgender Koreans living largely under the radar.

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South Korea has a conscript army to defend itself against the nuclear-armed North, with all able-bodied male citizens obliged to serve for nearly two years.

International rights groups have expressed concern about the way the country treats gay soldiers, who are banned from engaging in same-sex acts and can face up to two years in prison if caught – even though such actions are legal in civilian life.

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Byun, who is believed to be the first openly transgender soldier in South Korea, was found dead at her home in March 2021 after being discharged from the military a year prior.

But the nine-member panel opted to reject the category after finding that Byun’s death had no “significant causal connection” with her military service.

Activists have argued that the Gyeonggi province tank gunner had been significantly affected by her discharge in January 2020 after undergoing gender affirmation surgery and that it ultimately led to her death.

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South Korea’s Trans Liberation Front CEO Kim Wo-myeon said that, during her funeral, she felt that “something was wrong with the world”.

Additionally, members of a presidential committee on military deaths urged the South Korean defence minister to classify Byun’s case as “on-duty” death in April, according to

Revealed that, prior to her death, she had been urging for a continuation of the legal battle so that she could return to military service.

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Her family vowed to press ahead with the lawsuits, saying they would apply for a succession of the original case to “fulfil her dream [of serving the country as a transgender soldier] by winning the legal battle at all costs”.

The court eventually ruled in her favour on October 2021, saying that the army’s decision was “undoubtedly illegal and should be cancelled”.

The ruling added that it was “obvious that the decision should have been based on the premise that [Byun] was a woman”, as well as “various factors, such as special circumstances of the military, basic rights of trans people, and public opinions”.

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MyPinkNews members are invited to comment on articles to discuss the content we publish, or debate issues more generally. Please familiarise yourself with our community guidelines to ensure that our community remains a safe and inclusive space for all.SEOUL, South Korea — “So you think you can discuss military issues without even having served?” Conservative lawmaker Han Gi-ho hurled that question at conscientious objector Lim Tae-hoon in a parliamentary hearing. “You didn't even go!”

Lim is accustomed to such attacks. An openly gay activist, in 2005 he opted for a short prison sentence in lieu of the mandatory two-year military service — to protest bullying and a ban on gay sexual relations. He now campaigns against what he calls the army’s ferocious and unresponsive culture.

“Am I mentally disabled?” he snapped back. “If you look at the [army’s] mental condition assessment chart, it says I am sexually disabled.”

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Lim is one of a handful of activists fighting to pry open what he calls a secretive institution where allegations of bullying have long remained in the shadows, and where commanders, he argues, have a history of acting with impunity against their underlings.

The movement has gained momentum recently, riding national anger over the high-profile death of a conscript last April. Flogged and kicked for months, forced to lick phlegm off the floor, and covered in bruises, Private Yoon Seung-joo choked while being force-fed and beaten. He was rushed to the hospital but didn’t survive.

Officials didn’t release the bulk of these details for four months. Instead they emerged via a leaked report obtained by Lim’s group, the Center for Military Human Rights.

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A movement challenging the secretive Korean military institution to open up has gained momentum recently, riding national anger over the high-profile death of a conscript last April.Ahn Young-joon / AP

This month, the army upgraded charges against four soldiers from manslaughter to murder, also accusing them of destroying evidence by ripping out the victim’s diary pages and attempting to blackmail witnesses.

Earlier this month, two soldiers died in a mock captivity training after their heads were wrapped in cloth and their hands tied behind their backs. Since July, another four conscripts have killed themselves. Another outcast even snapped and went on a shooting rampage, killing five of his colleagues before a failed suicide attempt. Close to 800 servicemen have taken their own lives in the past decade, according to government figures.

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The allegations have been explosive in South Korea, a nation locked in a love-hate relationship with the idea of military valor. On the one hand, mandatory service is treated as a prerequisite to business and political success, and able-bodied men who haven’t earned their stars can be ostracized. On the other, two years spent enduring army hardship — with widespread bullying, poor conditions and abysmal pay — is akin to death and taxes: a near-certainty that anxious sons and their mothers dread.

Allegations of military bullying, hazing, and abuse have been explosive in South Korea, a nation locked in a love-hate relationship with the idea of military valor.Ahn Young-joon / AP

Many young men clamor for a way out. One popular route is through a lottery to join the US military as a Korean staffer, while a few even undergo surgery specially designed to damage body parts on purpose, landing a medical waiver. A smaller contingent willfully enter prison as conscientious objectors. Nine out of 10 conscientious objectors behind bars around the world are South Korean, according to a 2013 United Nations report — a number that has drawn the criticism from the organization.

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Military service is as much a part of public life in South Korea as the anger every few years over stories of abuse. This time, the intensity of the outcry has prompted a rebuke from President Park Geun-hye, who has called for measures to rein in violence. Other civic groups are pushing for greater civilian checks on the military, an institution has far more leeway than other ministries in matters of secrecy and internal policing with little parliamentary scrutiny.

Until the late 1980s, South Korea was a dictatorship that placed the military on a pedestal as the first line of defense against its enemy North Korea. It was also the institution that maintained order so the country could industrialize its way out of poverty.

Today, South Korea maintains a tangle of Cold War-era national security laws that give the army significant discretion over its affairs, often away from the eyes of civilian policymakers.

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Lim, for one, seeks the establishment of a civilian watchdog body with the legal power to oversee the military’s judicial system. “The problem is that the military polices itself, ” he told GlobalPost. “Army bullying is not just a matter of aggressor and victim, but a wider issue that goes straight to the heart of the twisted culture that the army has created.”

In recent months, the Ministry of National Defense has responded with a handful of changes, allowing parents to visit their children more often, offering more flexible leave dates, and