Ask a North Korean: what's life like in the army?

In an ongoing series, NK News poses a reader's question to a defector. This week, enduring military service on an empty stomach

In North Korea, men serve in the military for 10 years and women for seven. The special unit working as Kim Jong-un's personal bodyguards serve for 13.

Military service is compulsory in the DPRK and most people enlist after high school. Those who are accepted into universities do their military service after they graduate.