Colonel Shin Sook-Ho, Strongest Candidate for the First Female General of the Korea Armed Forces

It was reported that Colonel Shin Sook-Ho (49. graduate of 6th nurse cadet), principal of the Armed Forces Nursing Academy, is a strong candidate for the first female general in 53 years of the Korea Armed Forces history.

A military official said yesterday, ``As the result of the promotion screenings of 6-7 female colonels from the infantry arm and the nursing arm, Colonel Shin Sook-Ho seems to have been evaluated as the best candidate for the first female general. In a day or two, the military will obtain the approval from the chief executives of the military and the approval from President Kim Dae-Jung, and will announce the result on Wednesday.``

Colonels Um Ok-Soon and Min Kyung-Ja, who are the graduates of 24th Military Academy for Servicewomen, were mentioned as the candidates. However, since there were problems such as health and lack of experience, the first female General is to be produced from the nursing arm.

Colonel Shin competed with Colonel Yang Seong-Sok (51. graduate of 29th military cadet), who is currently the director of the nursing arm in the headquarters of the Korea Army. However, lingering rumors are that the `military legitimacy`, that is, if the General is to be produced from the nursing arm, the person should be a graduate of the nursing academy rather than a graduate of the general college, had influence the decision- making.

Colonel Shin was commissioned in 1975, and participated in the UN PKO in Saudi Arabia as a member of the Korea Army medical supporting forces in 1991. She also worked as the director of the health promotion in the Ministry of National Defense as well as the director of the medical management of the headquarters of the medical affairs.

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