North Korea Introduces 5 Year Mandatory Military Service Requirement for Women

Due to the famine of the 1990’s North Korea is now requiring all females after finishing high school to serve 5 years in the military:

North Korea is making military service mandatory for young women in a bid to strengthen the nation’s armed forces, sources inside the secretive state have told DailyNK.

The measure is said to apply to women aged between 17 and 20, and has been handed down to mobilisation offices in each province, city, and county. Implementation is reported to be already underway.

“Late last year, we received orders for all women who have graduated from middle and high school to undergo mandatory military service,” a source based in North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK this week.  [The Guardian]

You can read the rest at the link, but women have to serve 5 years and men still have to serve 10 years.