Photologue @theuostimes7
On April 21, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that sex between same-sex soldiers cannot be punished unconditionally. Prior to this decision, the Supreme Court had decided under Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act that same-sex soldiers would be prescribed a maximum prison term of two years if they had sex, regardless of whether they agreed or not. Because of this rule, the defendants who had consensual sex in private spaces outside the military facilities during off-duty hours were punished by imprisonment in the first and second trials.
However, the Supreme Court broke the existing precedent and sent the case back to the military court. The chief justice said that it is difficult to say that they have harmed military discipline, and their right to sexual self-determination should also be respected. The 'changes of the times' seem to have influenced this overturned conviction by the Supreme Court.
The Center for Military Human Rights welcomed the decision and argued that the Constitutional Court should now make an unconstitutional decision on the clause, which unfairly punished LGBTQ members. Clause 6 of Article 92 of the Military Criminal Act has been accused of being unconstitutional by various human rights activists. It remains to be seen how the Korean military and Korean judicial system will change their attitude toward LGBTQ people in the future.