Next year, South Korea will achieve a historic national first by deploying female navy personnel onboard its submarines. In doing so, South Korea would become the 14th nation in the world to have women operating its submarines.
South Korea’s move in this regard raises questions about the status of women in the North Korean navy.
As it turns out, the North Korean navy stipulates that women are forbidden from setting foot on any naval vessels, including submarines. The navy is effectively a “boys’ club,” with women barred from boarding naval vessels even as passengers.
This tradition ostensibly derives from Kim Il Sung’s “final teachings” in the 1960s out of consideration for women’s different physiological characteristics. In reality, the taboo against women onboard has its basis in a widely-held but unspoken superstition that “if a woman boards a boat, it will upset the ocean spirits and bring harm to the crew.”
While North Korea’s air force has deployed female fighter pilots and women can enroll in military flight academies, women are still barred from attending North Korea’s naval academy.
In 2018, the North Korean military released an internal report about women’s experiences serving in the military. The report found that “women serving in positions requiring technical skills often feel that they are put in an unfair position due to the inherent quirks of and constant pressure of operating in a male-dominated military culture.”
The investigation was the result of orders given by Kim Jong Un in early 2017. Under these orders, the General Political Bureau (GPB) and the Reserve Forces Division of the Ministry of Defense convened a special meeting specifically to discuss female soldiers.
According to the report based on the discussion and investigation, many women serving in the military complained of unease stemming from the discomfort of being deployed in male-dominated special combat engineering units.
In the navy, many female soldiers voiced similar experiences of “feeling discriminated against or alienated after being treated as less than full-fledged soldiers because they can’t board the ships so they naturally don’t know how to handle the special equipment.”
Every year, all members of the navy receive two months of swim training between June and August, regardless of gender. The report also mentioned the ridicule that many women endure during swim training as male soldiers mockingly question why women need the training when they will never be sent out to sea.
Additionally, the report mentioned that women who belonged to the navy but wore army uniforms felt like they were being deprived of professional opportunities compared to their male counterparts. According to the report, anti-aircraft gun and artillery units in the navy wear army uniforms, and many women lost self-esteem and motivation as a result of not being able to proudly wear the navy’s distinct “sailor suit” uniform.
Upon receiving the report, the General Political Bureau sympathized with female soldiers’ grievances while simultaneously exhorting “all female soldiers to be loyal to their duties as soldiers conscripted to protect the fatherland” and offering no solutions to the issues raised in the report.
While the special discussion was carried out to satisfy orders from Kim Jong Un, its perfunctory implementation and unsatisfying outcome left many female soldiers disappointed and wondering what the point of the investigation had been.
Women serving in the North Korean navy remain unable to board naval vessels, including submarines. The difference when compared to South Korea, which will be the 14th country in the world to include female members in its submarine crews, is as stark as night and day.
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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