Republic of Korea Army

The Republic of Korea Army (ROKA; Korean: 대한민국 육군), also known as the ROK Army or South Korean Army, is the ground warfare branch of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. It is the largest of the military branches of the South Korean military with 400,000 members as of 2025, a size maintained through conscription. All able-bodied South Korean males are required to complete military service, with the army requiring 18 months of military service between the ages of 18 and 35.

The ROKA traces its lineage to the Gwangmu Reform, with its modern form emerging in 1945 as the Korean Constabulary, a force initially heavily influenced by Imperial Japanese Army doctrine and former personnel as many founding officers and servicemen had served during the Second World War, a legacy that remains controversial in South Korea today.

Caught unprepared by rapid offensives by North Korean forces at the outbreak of the Korean War, ROKA forces were pushed to the brink of defeat, with most divisions (5 out of 8 divisions) overrun and destroyed in the opening acts of the war. After United Nations intervention stabilized the front in a final stand at the port city of Busan, the United States focused on rebuilding shattered ROKA divisions through intensive training and equipment. By the war's end the ROKA had grown into a significantly more capable force, going on to deploy roughly 320,000 combat troops to Vietnam and later seeing combat operations alongside coalition forces in the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Today the army fields 400,000 troops, 2,838 tanks, and 9,300 artillery pieces across 2 field armies, 6 corps, and 34 divisions.