South Korean government intelligence reported that Kim Jung-Un, the dictator of North Korea has released a new policy regarding his country's military. According to Yonhap News, Kim had announced that the government will be extending men's military service from 10 years to 11 years, and all women will now be required to serve in the military alongside men.
Intelligence delivered their analysis as to why Kim, the chairman of North Korea's defense administration had released this new policy. It appears that the government is trying to keep its 10-year soldiers from getting discharged.
In addition, Kim also announced that all women are now required to serve in the military alongside men. Although most North Korean women were originally required to dedicate a number of years of service, most of these female soldiers were volunteers. For a long time, for both men and women saw the military as a place with opportunities for gaining social stature and stability. Now however, unless she has a severe injury, sickness or disability, everyone will now be drafted into the Korean People's Army (KPA).
The reason why North Korea is suddenly reforming its military policy, according to some government experts was because the KPA is currently lacking manpower. It is estimated that North Korea is currently lacking as many as 50,000 soldiers. The KPA is the world's 3rd largest army with a million men and women at arms, but the Labor Party and the supreme dictator seem unable to maintain a military of such a scale.
After the "March of Hardship" of the 1990s, which was a period of extremely serious food shortages for North Korea, its citizens had to witness the birth of an entire generation that was much physically smaller and weaker than the previous generation. It is believed that the average height of a North Korean citizen is around 142 centimeters, compared to that of the average South Korean which is 175 centimeters. Their average daily calorie-intake is also very low at around 400 to 500 kcal a day.
Because of the rise of what many refer to as the "stunted generation", the North Korea government seems to have run into some difficulties with maintaining its immense military power. However, because of the lack of food and resources, many defectors who were interviewed by Channel A shared that even soldiers are not being fed properly, and around 3 soldiers per month die from malnutrition, and some choose to defect to either China or South Korea.
According to testimony by defectors who have served in the military, once they start their service in the armed forces, North Korean soldiers are not allowed to visit their homes and their families. In other words for men, they will be away from home for 10 years until they get discharged, similar to service women. On the other hand, South Korean soldiers (who are also draftees) are allowed to visit their homes once every few months.
Many experts have pointed out for a long time that the reason why North Korea hs put heavy emphasis on acquiring nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other chemical weapons was so they can overcome the problem of physically insufficient soldiers and outdated traditional weaponry.
