Reserve Officers' Training Corps (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...

: ;

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

: ) in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

is a college-based

officer training A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

program which was established in 1961. South Korea's

Conscription Law Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

applies to males, aged between 18 and 35, although women are allowed to enroll in the ROTC as of 2010. Applicants to the ROTC program go through a screening process; a written

exam An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...

, an

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

and health examination, and a

background check A background check is a process a person or company uses to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and this provides an opportunity to check and confirm the validity of someone's criminal record, education, employment history, and oth ...

. Once accepted, members undergo

physical Physical may refer to: * Physical examination, a regular overall check-up with a doctor * ''Physical'' (Olivia Newton-John album), 1981 ** "Physical" (Olivia Newton-John song) * ''Physical'' (Gabe Gurnsey album) * "Physical" (Alcazar song) (2004) * ...

and

military education Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles. Military training may be voluntary or compulsory duty. It begins with recruit training, proceed ...

throughout the semester; they are also required to undergo actual military training during

school holiday An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...

s. After commissioning, they serve for two and a half years; an individual may choose to extend his or her service past the required period in pursuit of an active military career.

Impact on South Korean society

It was estimated by a

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

research in 1990 that approximately 40% of new

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army unt ...

s were commissioned from the ROTC program after two years of training and two years and three months of obligatory service; most would leave the service after the obligatory period. The

Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon Korea Army Academy (Yeongcheon) or KAAY is a military academy of the Republic of Korea Army for training officer cadets. Commonly known as "Choongsungdae" ( ko, 충성대, Hanja: 忠誠臺) as a reference to its loyalty and devotion to the countr ...

produced another 40% of new second lieutenants; 5% were graduates of various military academies and 15% were directly commissioned specialists in the

medical corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are examples of medica ...

, judge advocates and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence ...

s. It has been postulated that the ROTC program in South Korea has contributed to national integration and cultural homogeneity, where military training had become a common cultural and organizational reference point; military officers became business managers and military conscripts became factory workers. A case in point would be

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, which systematically preferred workers who had undergone ROTC training. In 2011, South Korea had 9,063 ROTC cadets from 109 universities.

Evaluation

Until the establishment of ROTC, the military training program lacked consistency in its implementation plans, the lack of operational constraints and administrative support of senior officers, and the purpose of receiving indifference and military training by students with a higher degree of service and expense. However, the establishment of a ROTC was able to solve all problems, efficiently carry out the training procedures of junior officers, and smoothly fill up the junior officers.

Ties with United States ROTC

Cadets of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in a ...

routinely collaborate with their South Korean counterparts in

cultural exchange Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding". The purpose ...

s such as the Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency (CULP) program.

References

{{reflist Military education and training in South Korea

Impact on South Korean society

Evaluation

Ties with United States ROTC

See also

References