The Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) is the army of South Korea, founded on 5 September 1948. The ROKA was trained and equipped by the United States, and, during the Korean War and through the Vietnam War, the ROKA utilized World War II-era US equipment and uniforms, now of which were replaced with modern equipmentry. The army was initially involved with many scandalous affairs as with supporting dictators like Chun Doo-hwan and his predecessor, Park Chung-hee, until South Korea was finally democratized in 1987. The ROKA served alongside the United States in many modern conflicts like the Korean War, the Vietnam War, gulf war, and Iraq. In 2020, had a strength of 464,000 soldiers, 2,300 main battle tanks, 2,800 armored fighting vehicles, 5,800 artillery pieces, 200 multiple rocket launchers, and 60 guided missile systems.
History[]
In 1946, just one year after the independence of Korea, the army marked its start with the creation of the South Korean Land Defense Force, which on 1948, was built into the Republic of Korea Army. However, despite name many generals and leading officers were from the Imperial Japanese Army and few members of Korean Independence Army and provisional government academies like general Kim Hong Il and Chae Myung Shin. Because of this, many of the army’s parts even now is often based on Japanese ones.
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean People’s army invaded the Republic of Korea. Despite the naive claims by President Syngman Rhee that ‘the troops are marching through north!’ the reality was more different. Many troops, even after the north’s armored units entered gae-sung(gae sung was a part of South Korea until the wars end) were on leave and the army had only supplies that would last them for 15 days of operation. Because of this, the army was pushed way back to the Nak-Dong river by less then a few months, due to President Syngman Rhee’s incompetence at dealing with the situation.
This changed after the landing of incheon when United Nations forces moved into North Korea. After the 1.4 retreat and many other incursions the war would end in 1953. But the damage was already done.
From then on with the continued dictatorship’s the army would be constantly used by dictators like Syngman Rhee,Park Chung-hee, and Chun Doo-hwan as methods to crack down on Democracy, and to assure the leaders were safe.
One brutal instance of this was the 5.18 democratic movement, during the Chun Doo-hwan days. In 1980, a nationwide protest to restore Democracy was held especially in Gwangju, which struck the government and the KCIA. Chun wasn’t happy about this and he order the troops to move in. Paratroopers of the 11th airborne brigade of the special warfare command were deployed to stop protests and killed hundreds of innocent civilians, police officers, even pregnant women, babies and the elderly. Many reports also pointed out that the paratroopers mercilessly raped civilians further proving the savage ways of the dictators. This led to the nationwide fury against the 11th airborne brigade that still exists today in gwangju.
The troops of the Military Police are walking around patrolling
After Chun Doo-hwan was moved out of office, the Republic of Korea Army still had scandals especially with the ties to the KCIA and the ever-scandalous defense security command. Because of this, the army began to slow down on authoritarian actions and moved about a Democratic ways. This started with President Kim Young-sam’s dissolution of the secret league of military officers known as the hanahoe, which helped Chun Doo-hwan rise up to power. Then, President Kim also made many officers related with the hanahoe and the dictatorial regime of the past resign, or else. This movement also called the purge of the hanahoe was the movement that finally led to the army’s transition to Democracy with the end of every kind of chances to a coup detat.
Now, the Republic of Korea Army is the 6th most largest armed forces in the world.