A male military officer in a leadership position at a female anti-aircraft artillery unit in Songpyong District, Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, has been dishonorably discharged for having “inappropriate relations,” Daily NK sources reported on Tuesday.
“The male officer pretended to be single and had relations with two female soldiers before he was dishonorably discharged for breaching military codes of conduct,” a North Hamgyong Province-based source said.
The man had a wife and children and initially tricked the two women into believing he was single, resulting in one of the women becoming pregnant.
The pregnant soldier was handling administrative duties in the unit and close to the end of her service. She faced demands by the officer to terminate her pregnancy, but refused and even visited the man’s house to demand that his wife divorce her husband.
The incident caused a major uproar within the entire unit and surrounding civilian areas, according to the source.
The officer had been accused of sexual harassment at his previous posting in Susong District, which is also in Chongjin, but was able to avoid punishment due to his influential parents.
The pregnant soldier received an early discharge from the military, another Daily NK source confirmed.
All-female anti-aircraft artillery units were established in each region of North Korea in the 1960s after Kim Il Sung announced the “Four Military Lines
,” which included efforts to: 1) arm the entire population, 2) fortify the entire country, 3) train the army as a “cadre army”; and 4) modernize weaponry, doctrine, and tactics under the principle of “Juche” (commonly translated as “self-reliance”) in national defense.
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