The U.S. Naval Forces Korea is a major shore command of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

that serves as the shore support agency for all U.S. naval activity in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Known by the initials "CNFK", an abbreviation of the address format of the unit ("Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea"), its headquarters are at Busan Naval Base,

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

. CNFK is jointly under the command of the operational command of

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

, responsible for the support of all U.S. naval forces on the

Korean peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

, and

United States Forces Korea The United States Forces Korea (USFK) is a Unified Combatant Command#Subordinate Unified Command, sub-unified command of United States Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). USFK was initially established in 1957, and e ...

. CNFK is also CNIC's assigned Region Commander with administrative control over what are two naval installations in South Korea which are Fleet Activity Chinhae and Busan Naval Base. CNFK is commanded by a

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

(lower half) who serves as the Navy liaison to the Commander of the

. In times of war, CNFK becomes a ground-based task force of

United States Seventh Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the ...

History

U.S. Naval Forces, Korea, was established on 1 July 1957, with headquarters in Seoul. The command was created by the reorganization of the Naval Forces, Far East Command into the separate commands of Naval Forces Japan and Naval Forces Korea. Commander, Naval Forces Korea, assumed the following additional duties: * Commander, Naval Component Command, United Nations Command * Chief, U.S. Naval Advisory Group, Korea, and Navy Advisor to the Republic of Korea * Commander, Naval Component Command, U.S. Forces Korea * On-Call Member, United Nations Military Armistice Commission The principal mission of CNFK was acting as part of the

United Nations Command United Nations Command (UNC or UN Command) is the multinational military force established to support the South Korea, Republic of Korea (South Korea) during and after the Korean War. It was the first attempt at collective security by the U ...

. In this regard, the commander exercised command of U.S. Naval Forces assigned or attached, and operational control over the Republic of Korea Navy. Rear Admiral Neil A. Koprowski assumed command of CNFK in June 2023.

Bases

* Busan Naval Base * Chinhae Naval Base

List of commanders

References

External links

CNFK
official website
CNFK on Navy.mil

U.S. 7th Fleet

United States Forces Korea
* United States military in South Korea Commands of the United States Navy *Commander, Naval Forces K {{US-navy-stub