The North Korean People’s Army now has more than 10 percent women in its ranks, according to a recent defector.
Two defectors identified only as Kim and a 38-year-old former KPA Air Force officer identified as Choe told the Daily NK newsletter that women are occupying more administrative and combat positions than in the past.
“Most of the small-caliber anti-aircraft guns are operated by women and there are even all-female independent brigades and regiments," Kim said.
Kim also said that most of North Korea’s train tunnels and bridges are guarded by female armed forces units equipped with 14.5-mm machine guns.
Kim is a former female member of the KPA 4-25 Training Camp 331st Brigade 6th Mechanized Battalion. She joined in 1997, during a period of peak starvation in North Korea. One of the few ways parents could help their children avoid starvation was by sending them to the army.
Choe said even pilots of Soviet-built IL-28 bombers are women.
The report said female North Korean soldiers who leave the service automatically become members of the ruling Workers Party and have a better chance of selection as junior party officials. However, they are not preferable as marriage partners, the report said.
