The Republic of Korea’s (ROK) armed forces trace their origin to 1948. The force came of age on the battlefields of the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. Since the 1953 ceasefire the ROK has been building what is acknowledged to be one of the world’s best trained and equipped militaries.
Beyond this the country and its military have pursued an economic and defence policy hand in hand that together have seen it evolve into a leading developer and growing supplier of the most advanced weapons, platforms and subsystems for land, air and naval use. Despite the threat from its northern Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) neighbour, the ROK has become a regional power with intent to take on a larger global role.
Reform 2020
The ROK’s President Moon Jae-in, elected in May, has laid out a direction for defence emphasising self-reliance with priority given to modernising and transforming the ROK armed forces. The Defence Reform Plan 2020 (DRP-2020) was actually initiated in 2006 by then President Roh Moo-hyun when current President Moon served as his chief of staff. The key tenet of DRP-2020 is to transform the ROK military into a smaller, yet more capable, force. It places increased emphasis on improved equipment and greater application of manoeuvre and technology. An objective of the reform is a new strategic approach to the DPRK, as well as for a larger international engagement by the ROK and its military. The former is the adoption of a new doctrine of “Proactive Deterrence” that provides for “prompt, focused and proportional retaliation against (DPRK) attacks”. It is intended that the assurance of active response will cause the DPRK’s leadership to reconsider aggressive actions.
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