The Republic of Korea Navy – A ‘Big’ Small Navy

Abstract

A product of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the geo-strategic conundrum that followed, the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) has for the majority of its existence been an adjunct force to its larger service rival, the Republic of Korea Army. Defined by the limited threat posed by the naval forces of North Korea, the ROKN has been confined to a defensive littoral role, charged with ensuring that North Korea could not violate South Korean maritime territory or use the sea as an arena for preemptive attack. This focus on deterrence and territorial protection in combination with an overall narrowness of security perceptions on the part of the South Korean leadership left the ROKN, despite its relatively large size, as a small navy. Its mission set and capabilities were limited and it possessed no real power projection or regional operational capabilities. This began to change, however, in the 1990s when changes in the South Korean government and its view of Korean security provided the navy with the opportunity to expand and modernise not only its platforms but its mission set also. Its goal was to transition from a limited small navy to a medium force that could operate on a regional level performing blue-water operations while at the same time maintaining its traditional deterrent function in South Korean waters. However, despite some initial successes, the realities of the security situation on the Korean peninsula, the need for sustained political support, and the constraints of budgetary allocations have made attaining this goal difficult. What this chapter aims to do is first explain the nature of the ROKN modernisation programme and second, demonstrate the various internal and external factors that have driven or constrained ROKN development, showing that the transition from a small to a medium or large navy only can only occur when all of these influences are aligned in support of such a goal.