hankyoreh

By Ha Eo-young, staff reporter

For the first time in the history of the South Korean military, female soldiers will be allowed to ride in tanks and shoot self-propelled artillery.

In a daily briefing on Feb. 20, Defense Ministry spokesperson Kim Min-seok said, “Starting this year, the Defense Ministry has decided to open up the chaplain unit, the army‘s artillery units, armored units (tanks and armored cars), and anti-aircraft units to female soldiers. We have also decided to select female cadets for the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon for the first time.”

“We are planning to improve the personnel and management systems to enable women to take make the most of their abilities and to adjust systems to enable them to balance work and family,” Kim said.

The Ministry intends to assign new female officers to the chaplain, artillery, and anti-aircraft units and to move female officers from other areas to armored units for now. Later, it will administer a test to assign new officers to those units.

In the past, female soldiers were prevented from applying to these units because the loud noise and vibrations were believed to make them an excessively harsh working environment.

Female NCOs are still not assigned to artillery and armored units in the marines, the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), Underwater Demolition Unit (UDU), Ship Salvage Unit (SSU), and communication in the navy, or air rescue in the air force, in consideration of the working environment. However, Kim said that the ministry would consider the option of opening up artillery and armored units in the marines to women at a later point.

The Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon recruited 20 female cadets this year, the first time it has done so. They will enter the academy in 2015 and be commissioned as second lieutenants in 2017. In the long-term, the Ministry means to increase the portion of female officers to 7% by 2015 and the portion of female NCOs to 5% by 2017.

There have been female platoon commanders assigned to infantry units since 2002 (but not the front lines since 2012), and women have also been serving as pilots in fighters since 2003. Three females were also assigned to the marines as majors in 2011.

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