As enlistment season approaches for North Korean high school graduates in early 2025, parents in South Hamgyong province are pursuing sham divorces to exempt their sons from mandatory military service, driven by fears that new recruits will be deployed to Russia, where North Korean soldiers have suffered heavy casualties.
"The career of high school graduates is basically determined by their family backgrounds. But parents who are worried their sons might be deployed overseas are looking for ways to avoid military service, such as through college admission," a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Feb. 13, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
In North Korea, only three main groups are exempted from military service: university students; carriers of communicable diseases such as hepatitis and tuberculosis; and people with physical disabilities.
Individuals whose parents are divorced can also be exempted because the regime assumes they did not receive a proper education in the "revolutionary family." Nevertheless, the sons of divorced parents must still perform military service as long as their high school homeroom teacher and the local branch of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League do not report any issues with their moral character or political loyalty.
In short, divorce is the only way out of military service for families that lack the resources to send their children to university.
That has led to a spate of fake divorces among families whose sons are about to join the army.
"There was a couple in the Sapo district of Hamhung who abruptly got divorced last September. It was obvious their actual goal was to keep their son from entering the army," the source said.
In the past, families sometimes submitted falsified medical documents to avoid military service, but that approach is no longer effective.
"Doctors are reluctant to fake documents because they can be punished if they're caught. So since parents can't fake a (disqualifying) disease, they're getting divorced on paper to help their sons evade conscription," the source said.
Concern about deployment to Russia is the main reason North Koreans are seeking exemptions from compulsory service.
"Videos and photographs of soldiers killed in action have made parents more anxious," the source said. "Parents often say that if their son is killed, it would be little comfort to get a comfortable house in Pyongyang, far from friends and loved ones. Because of fears that their sons will be sent off to die in a foreign war, many are resorting to any means available to avoid conscription."
North Korea has erected a memorial to honor the achievements of soldiers deployed to Russia's war against Ukraine and allows the family members of the deceased to live in Pyongyang, among other efforts to glorify their sacrifice. But for many North Koreans, those measures only exacerbate fears about deployment.
Anxiety about joining the army is concentrated among cash-strapped families with little income. The children of wealthy or powerful families can attend college to avoid military service or pull strings even after conscription to secure a spot in a relatively safe and comfortable unit.
"It's sad to think that parents are getting divorced just to keep their sons out of the military. That shows how terrified they are about the possibility of their sons being sent overseas after enlistment," the source said.
