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North Korea to conscript women for 7 years

September 22, 2014
North Korea

(Korea Times file)

North Korean women aged 17 and over will face seven years’ military conscription, starting in January, sources said over the weekend.

According to revised military service laws to be announced soon, military service for males will be increased from 10 years to 11 years. The state originally considered increasing the period to 13 years but, taking into account the measure’s overall failure in the mid-1990s, decided instead to conscript women.

The North is struggling to keep up the numbers in its military forces, which have totaled more than 1.2 million.

A shortage of males born in the mid-1990s reflects the nationwide famine during which about 330,000 children died.