[Column] Defense Ministry's Measures Are Just Empty Words

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Will the Ministry of National Defense just come up with “empty measures” again? As the Ministry of National Defense announced countermeasures regarding the case of a female non-commissioned officer who made an extreme choice after being sexually assaulted recently, only curt reactions are coming from inside and outside the military.

Why is that? Let’s go back to 2015. At that time, the Ministry of National Defense declared a “war against sexual crimes” and prepared a “comprehensive plan to eradicate sexual violence.” The term previously used as “sexual-related incidents” was also changed to “sexual violence.” This was because the military had been referring to sexual violence with terms like sexual harassment and sexual molestation, perceiving it only as a “disciplinary incident.” By changing the terminology to sexual violence, they also decided to strengthen customized gender-sensitivity education to change perceptions related to sex. However, in the Ministry of National Defense’s briefing to the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly on the 9th, this case was defined as a sexual molestation victim death case.

The Ministry of National Defense also decided to prioritize selecting female mentors and court-appointed lawyers as assistants throughout the entire process of handling the case. This was a measure considering that it would be difficult for female victims to communicate smoothly with male court-appointed lawyers. However, the first court-appointed lawyer for Sergeant Lee in this case was male. The second court-appointed lawyer was also male. Among the 113 legal officers belonging to the Air Force, only 17 are female legal officers. However, there was not a single female court-appointed lawyer who could defend the position of a sexual violence victim. In particular, the bereaved family claims that the court-appointed lawyer never met Sergeant Lee even once until her death and effectively neglected the victim who suffered secondary harm such as coercion. The promise of a female court-appointed lawyer was essentially nonexistent.

The Ministry of National Defense established the Gender Equality Committee in 2018 and also formed a special task force for sexual crime countermeasures. They prepared manuals related to sexual crimes and strengthened the principle of “separating perpetrators and victims.” However, in the case of Air Force Sergeant Lee, these manuals did not work at all.

The Ministry of National Defense recently announced the formation of a military prosecution investigation review committee and the operation of a special measures team. However, it is questionable how much the public will trust the Ministry of National Defense, which keeps producing all kinds of task forces and countermeasures. This is because the fact that female soldiers have been implicitly or explicitly sexualized since the establishment of female soldiers in 1950 has not changed within the military.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.