An officer of the Supreme Guard Command in Pyongyang’s Samsok district was dishonorably discharged and forced to return to his hometown after his girlfriend filed a complaint against him. The officer had cut off contact with her after learning of her pregnancy, causing a scandal that led to his expulsion from the service early last month.
According to a source in South Pyongan province recently, the man, who is in his 30s, began a relationship with a woman in her 20s who lives in Pyongsong after a friend introduced them in early 2022.
Pyongyang’s Samsok district, where the Supreme Guard Command is based, and Pyongsong border each other, so the man was given leave every weekend to visit the woman.
Earlier this year, the woman learned that she was pregnant and immediately told the man. But he cut off all contact with her, even blocking her phone calls.
The woman’s angry parents visited the man’s base several times, but were unable to meet with him. Finally, the woman’s family complained to the political department of the military unit.
The unit’s political and cadre departments later decided to dishonorably discharge the man.
While military law does not make it explicit, military authorities sometimes dishonorably discharge personnel for sex scandals if they lead to complaints, the source said.
Dishonorable discharges make it difficult to become an upstanding member of society and hurt job placement.
“If you’ve served in the Supreme Guard Command, you usually have a good chance of being placed in a much better job than other people, but he lost that advantage because of his dishonorable discharge,” the source said.
With that in mind, North Koreans familiar with the incident find it odd that the man would ignore his pregnant girlfriend and even take the political hit.
Some people blasted the man for shirking his responsibility, saying that someone so evil should have suffered worse than simply being kicked out of the army, and that he should have been expelled from the ruling party and sent to a forced labor camp.
Meanwhile, the woman is faced with raising a child alone. While some find it hard to understand the woman’s refusal to give up the child, many encourage her choice, saying that nowadays “raising a child alone isn’t a mistake,” the source said.
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
