Under the country's military criminal act, members of the armed
forces face up to two years in prison for same-sex
relationships. The law has been referred to the court and upheld
by it four times since 2002.
In Thursday's five-to-four ruling, the court said allowing
same-sex relations could undermine discipline within the
military and harm its combat capabilities.
Rights groups have been urging the court to scrap what they
termed an "outdated and bad" law, after the Supreme Court last
year overturned a military court's conviction of two soldiers
sentenced to suspended prison terms for a consensual same-sex
relationship.
Activists said the law fuels violence and discrimination against
and stigmatization of gay soldiers.
"This continued endorsement for the criminalization of
consensual same-sex acts within the Korean military is a
distressing setback in the decades-long struggle for equality in
the country," Boram Jang, Amnesty International's East Asia
researcher, said in a statement after Thursday's ruling.
South Korea has one of the world's largest active armies, with
all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 28 required to
serve between 18 and 21 months.
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; editing by John Stonestreet)
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