Tag: South Korean

The Constitutional Court of South Korea has confirmed a law that forbids same-sex relationships in the military. They said it could harm the readiness for combat. The country’s LGBTQ community sees this decision as a disappointing step backwards.

On Thursday, the court made a decision with a vote of 5 in favor and 4 against. They did not agree to say that a part of the Military Criminal Act is against the constitution. This part says that “anal intercourse” or any other indecent act is not allowed while serving in the military, and people can be put in prison for up to two years for doing these acts.

Although the law does not specifically mention relationships between people of the same sex, it is commonly understood and interpreted that way. LGBTQ activists have been against this law for a while because they consider it discriminatory.

In the past, many people have been arrested using the law, which some people think was unfairly targeting gay people.

The court said in its decision on Thursday that if soldiers were allowed to have same-sex relationships, it could cause problems with maintaining discipline and potentially disrupt the chain of command in the army.

If people agree to have sex, it can still cause a lot of harm to the military if it happens while they are working.

Four judges who disagreed with the majority concluded that the language of the article is unclear and can be interpreted in different ways. Three of those judges also warned against restricting someone’s sexual orientation in the name of military discipline.

They are not sure if the law only prohibited inappropriate behavior between soldiers of the same sex or if it also included inappropriate behavior between male and female soldiers.

The activist group Rainbow Action is not happy with the ruling. They think the court did not do a good job of protecting the minority’s rights.

However, the group found hope in the comments made by the judges who disagreed with the majority, as they cautioned against labeling sexual acts between same-sex couples as abnormal.

The judges who disagreed said that there is no good reason to treat consensual sexual acts between soldiers of the same sex and those between opposite-sex soldiers differently.

The group emphasized that the provision in the Military Criminal Act which addresses indecent acts is discriminatory towards sexual minorities.

Amnesty International’s East Asia Researcher, Boram Jang, expressed concern over the Korean military continuing to criminalize consensual same-sex acts. Jang sees this as a significant setback in the ongoing fight for equality in the country.

The researcher said the ruling highlighted the common bias that sexual minorities experience in South Korea and the government’s inaction to support and promote equality for them.

South Korea has one of the largest active armies in the world because almost all men between 18 and 28 are required to serve in the military.

This case is one of the few that has been brought to the South Korean courts. The district courts decided to send it to the constitutional branch because they felt that there might be a problem with the phrase “any other indecent act. ”

South Korea doesn’t consider same-sex marriage as legal, but activists say there has been improvement on LGBTQ rights lately.

In February, a court made an important decision in support of a gay couple who wanted fair access to health benefits. The supporters and activists were really happy about the decision because it was the first time that the legal rights of this type of couples were acknowledged.

The person named So Seong-wook went to court because the National Health Insurance Service, which is connected to the government, began asking him to pay insurance fees even though he is considered a dependent of his male partner.

However, Christian and conservative groups have been showing a strong increase in opposition lately.

In May, South Korea’s largest LGBTQ pride celebration, Seoul Queer Culture Festival, was unable to get permission to use its usual location for their event. Instead, the venue was used for a Christian youth concert.

A month later, there were fights in the city of Daegu. Local leaders, including the mayor, argued with the police during a protest against the Daegu Queer Culture Festival.

People who disagreed, like Christian groups, tried and did not succeed in stopping the festival through a court order. The mayor, Hong Joon-pyo, had expressed disapproval of the festival because he believed it promoted an inappropriate understanding of sex among young people.

A South Korean marine major-general was relieved of his command Friday after the military failed to prevent a man’s illegal defection back to the North, officials said. The man’s departure only came to light when Pyongyang — which insists it has not had any coronavirus cases — announced at the weekend that a “runaway” who had returned across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone was suspected of having the disease.

Defections from the South to the North are extremely rare, and doubly so across the DMZ, which divides the peninsula and is one of the world’s most secure borders.

But the South Korean military later confirmed a 24-year-old man surnamed Kim had gone North by crawling through a drainage channel on Ganghwa island, northwest of Seoul, and then swimming across the Han river.

On Friday, the joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said that Kim was detected on his journey seven times by surveillance cameras or thermal observation devices, but the military did not intervene.

A guard at a post about 200 metres from the water conduit spotted “lights” when Kim arrived in a taxi at 2:18 am, but took no action, they added.

Marine corps general Baek Kyung-soon had been removed from his position for the security failure, Seoul’s defence ministry official told AFP.

The JCS said it took Kim about 12 minutes to crawl through the drain, and around an hour to swim across the Han to his destination.

Kim originally defected to the South in 2017, also by swimming across the river. He was being investigated on rape allegations in the South before his return.

Rights groups say defectors face severe punishment if they return to the North.

The South’s health authorities said his name did not appear in the database of confirmed coronavirus cases, nor lists of their contacts.

But analysts say the North is seizing on his arrival to point the finger at Seoul over the coronavirus, after months of denying it had any cases.

Inter-Korean relations have been in a deep freeze following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump early last year over what the nuclear-armed North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.

Friday’s announcement comes days after the South’s defence minister Jeong Kyeong-doo apologised over Kim’s departure, saying: “I have no excuse even if I’m told off a hundred times over this.”

Source: eurasiantimes.com

The South Korean unification minister has offered his resignation over the sharp rise in tensions with the North.

Kim Yeon-chul said he took responsibility for the worsening of inter-Korean relations.

It comes a day after North Korea blew up a symbolic liaison office near the border which was built to improve ties with the South.

The North Korean army meanwhile has said it will send troops into disarmed areas along the border.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pyongyang explained why it blew up the office in Kaesong.

A state media article accused the South of breaking 2018 agreements and behaving like a “mongrel dog” – while the sister of Kim Jong-un accused the South’s president of being a US “flunkey”.

While the South says it remains open for talks, it has condemned the North’s actions as senseless and damaging.

Tensions have sharply escalated in recent weeks – partly prompted by defectors in the South sending propaganda over the border.

What did North Korea say?

North Korean state media accused the South of “systemically breaching and destroying” recent 2018 agreements, including the Panmunjom Declaration.

The article compared the South’s defence ministry to a “feared mongrel dog” that was “bragging and bluffing, rattling the dialogue partner and stoking [a] confrontational atmosphere”.

It closed with a warning that Tuesday’s explosion could be “a prelude to the total catastrophe of the North-South relations”.

Meanwhile, the North’s military said it would move troops to two symbols of past Korean co-operation: the shut industrial complex in Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang tourist zone on the east coast.

There was also an attack from Kim Yo-jong – the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – aimed at the South’s President Moon Jae-in.

“The reason the north-south agreements which were so wonderful did not see…even a single step of implementation was due to the noose of the pro-US flunkeyism into which he put his neck.

“Even before the ink on the north-south agreement got dry, he accepted the ‘South Korea-US working group’ under the coercion of his master.”

How did the South respond?

President Moon’s office on Wednesday said the North’s conduct was senseless – and warned Seoul would no longer accept unreasonable behaviour by the North.

Despite the explosion of the liaison office though, the South says it hopes an agreement from 2018 in Pyongyang can be honoured.

“It is our basic stance that the 19 September military agreement should be complied with without fail to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and to prevent accidental clashes,” the South’s defence ministry said.

It warned, though, that any military action by the North was being closely monitored, with a “strong response” to any military provocation.

The South also offered to send special envoys to diffuse the current tension, yet the North was quick to reject the idea.

What was the build-up to this?

North Korea on Tuesday blew up a joint liaison office near the border, but on its own territory.

The office was opened in 2018 – a year of intense diplomacy – to help the two sides communicate.

But earlier this month, the North expressed its anger at the cross-border propaganda and then cut all communication with the South.

Pyongyang then escalated tensions further by threatening to move troops back into areas of the border zone it left after the 2018 deal.

The explosion of the liaison office – which was empty – was the most symbolic step so far by the North.

Why is this happening?

Pyongyang’s anger over cross-border propaganda is the official explanation – yet the propaganda is nothing new.

Activists groups in the South routinely send balloons across the border carrying things like leaflets condemning Pyongyang’s human rights abuses.

Analysts think North Korea might be trying to intentionally escalate the situation to gain more leverage should diplomatic talks resume.

This would be a message aimed both at Seoul and Washington DC, Jeongmin Kim, Seoul Correspondent at NK News, told the BBC.

The destruction of the liaison office “is largely irrelevant to the US-North Korea relations,” she said.

But “it can still serve as a message that the North is willing to withdraw from any widely-publicised goodwill gestures they had made in the past – if they do not get what they want”.

Source: bbc.com