After sex video, S. Korea accused of targeting gay soldiers
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — A watchdog group says South Korea’s army is hunting down and prosecuting gay servicemen after a video of two male soldiers having sex was posted on the internet earlier this year, stoking fear in an already persecuted minority group.
Military investigators looking into the case have threatened soldiers to out their gay peers, confiscated cellphones to check communication records, and even used dating apps to dupe soldiers into revealing their sexual identity, said Lim Tae-hoon, the head of the Military Human Rights Center for Korea, which tracks down abuses in the armed forces.
South Korea’s army says it’s conducting a proper criminal investigation into soldiers allegedly involved with filming and uploading the video, which is a violation of the country’s communications laws and a military penal code that makes homosexual activity punishable by up to two years in prison. The army has denied allegations that investigators are using the case to embark on a broader mission to weed out gay soldiers.
“Military investigators used the information they gained from the investigation on the sex video to track down other gay soldiers in the army, starting by forcing the suspects to identify who they had sex with and then widening their search from there,” said Lim, who said a soldier tipped his group off about the alleged crackdown.