South Korean ex-air force officer sparks debate on conscripting women to boost birth rate

Kim Hyung-chul, retired air force officer, believes military service would give men and women more opportunities to meet and form relationships

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South Korean soldiers wave national flags to say goodbye as their colleagues depart for Iraq at Seoul military airport on October 22, 2003. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:45pm, 9 Oct 2024Updated: 5:48pm, 9 Oct 2024

A retired air force officer has faced backlash for suggesting that women should be conscripted into the military to address South Korea’s abysmally low birth rate.

Kim Hyung-chul, head of the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, a defence ministry-affiliated think tank, said enlistment served as an opportunity for men and women to meet, mingle and advance their relationships.

“We have reached a point where women need to serve in the military. In that case, men and women would sleep in separate rooms in the barracks, but they would still live together like in university dormitories,” Kim told a South Korean YouTube channel last month.

He added: “Naturally, couples would form. And this camaraderie could lead to more marriages and eventually more babies.”

Kim also suggested that women can be assigned combat roles during emergencies.

By law, all able-bodied men in the country must serve 18 to 21 months in the military under a conscription system established to deal with threats from nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea, while women can volunteer for army duty as officers or non-commissioned officers.