Reserve Officers' Training Corps (South Korea)

Reserve Officers' Training Corps (Hangul: 학생군사교육단; Hanja: 學軍士官) in South Korea is a college-based officer training program which was established in 1961. South Korea's Conscription Law 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 interview and health examination, and a background check. Once accepted, members undergo physical and military education throughout the semester; they are also required to undergo actual military training during school holidays. 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.

Background of creation
South Korea's first school corps was born in the Navy. In the case of the Navy, on March 11, 1959, the first school group of the 3rd Army was launched by establishing the Naval Busan Military Education Group (Navy 1001st Student Military Education Group) at Korea Maritime University. The reason why the Naval School Corps was established at the Maritime University is deeply related to the nature and purpose of the school's establishment. The Korea Maritime University was a member of the Ministry of National Defense from 1947 to 1949, and on October 17, 1958, the Naval Reserve Order (Presidential Decree No. 1935) was promulgated and implemented, resembling the Sangseon Academy, where all students were candidates for the school. Over time, there have been several changes to the relevant military service law, and now the selective school group and the boarding service reserve system are in place together. The Marine University's Naval School Corps system was implemented to allow commercial officers (ship's navigators/engineers) and students at the Marine University who train national shipping personnel to work on board commercial ships immediately after graduation. Therefore, students had to complete military science and military training as well as their majors during their enrollment, and the graduation ceremony was held as an appointment ceremony. Most of the graduates were commissioned as second lieutenants and discharged from the military, serving in merchant ships as naval reserves. Some of the graduates served as active naval officers. It can be said to be a system for efficient manpower management for commercial officers who contribute to the national economy through maritime transport in peacetime and are responsible for military service at sea as naval reserves in wartime.

In the case of the Army, in the early 1960s, the government of the Republic of Korea at that time was in a desperate position to increase military power urgently in the face of confrontation between the two Koreas. As part of this, the school military officer system was established to solve the most serious problem in the military command system at the time by selecting college students for military education and commissioning them as officers upon graduation. This has the advantage of increasing standing power [2] by recruiting elite resources with expertise in each major field after graduating from college in a short period of time, and by incorporating them as reserve forces commanders after active service. In addition, school military officers were able to significantly reduce the burden of the budget for training education compared to the military academy, which was educated for four years.


 * Naval School Corps: Korea Maritime University, 11 March 1959.


 * Air Force School Corps: Korea Air Force 1971.


 * Women's college group: Sookmyung Women's University in 2010.

Changes in Name and System
At the same time as the establishment of the Student Military Training Corps on June 1, 1961, the Army Headquarters decided to enact the unit symbol of the Student Corps in order to unify the unit symbol of the Student Corps and enhance the pride and dignity of ROTC candidates. As a result of collecting opinions from each academy, the ROTC English letter was finally decided to imitate the ROTC insignia design used at universities in the United States at the time, and each academy was required to attach the above insignia to the upper arm of ROTC candidates' uniforms. From the 5th generation, the white insignia "Hakhundan", which stands for the Student Military Training Group, was used on a shield-shaped blue background to establish the spirit of self-defense and national identity.

The term "reserve officer training group" or "reserve officer candidate" was initially designated in consideration of the nature of the system that required him to serve in the military after being appointed as a reserve officer. However, the ROTC system, an officer training course, was managed as a reserve, and not only did it not sound good in terms of title, but it was also complicated to order a supplementary summons for all officers and peacetime to serve in the military.

Thus, in 1983, the candidate status was decided as the first national role in consideration of the relationship between the number of military units, salaries and allowances, restrictions on the application of military laws and disciplinary action, and the possibility of a problem with the university. According to the revision of the Military Service Act, the name of the candidate was changed from a reserve officer candidate to a school officer candidate, and during the candidate period, the "school officer candidate" Lim Kwan-si maintained consistency such as "school officer from school."

Statistics on school district officers
As of 2017, the school military officer system produced about 190,000 officers, 52 generals, including 6 generals by the 10th, and 215 colonel by the 17th, and about 20 out of 20,000 active military officers.

Not only the military but also at all levels of society, it forms a huge network of school district officers as leaders.

Results of a survey of 100,000 members by the ROTC Central Association (2008)


 * 2,145 people in the legislative and administrative fields (former police chief, etc.)


 * Political circles (17 lawmakers, etc.) 1,001


 * 915 people in the media (more than 60 people at the director level)


 * 3,217 professors (8 university presidents = Lee Jang-moo, president of Seoul National University, Son Byung-doo, president of Sogang University, Hwang Joon-sung, president of Soongsil University, Jang Ho-sung, president of Dankook University, Yoo Byung-jin, etc.), 4,521 teachers


 * 10,000 business executives (34.8%, SK Telecom Honorary Chairman Son Kil-seung, Lee Young-joo, Iljin Group Chairman Huh Jin-kyu, Unix Electronics Chairman Lee Choong-koo, Samsung President Kang Sung-won, Hanadok Pharmaceutical Chairman Kim Young-jin, Daelim C&S CEO Hwang Ho-rim, CEO Lee Wang-don, CEO of Daejeon Poly


 * Entertainment industry (actor Ahn Sung-ki (Korea University), comedian Lee Sang-yong (Korea University), actor Joo-hyun (Konkuk University), singer Marvel J (Kyunghee University), etc.)

It has been shown that is engaged in.

However, while the military service period continues to be reduced, the service period of school military officers continues to be fixed, and for this reason, the 61st school district (commissioned officer in 2023) candidates were not enough.[4] In Korea, the shorter the military service period, the higher the preference. Therefore, in the case of noncommissioned officers, they do not apply if they are not working as professional soldiers, so the number of active service personnel is similar to that of officers and noncommissioned officers, but the number of reserve officers is remarkably small. In 1997, when the 35th class was commissioned as a lieutenant, 28 months of military service and 26 months of military service, and considering that if an officer is commissioned as a lieutenant, he or she is required to train for four more months. For this reason, the popularity of school military officers who serve for six more months has waned.

Impact on South Korean society
It was estimated by a Library of Congress research in 1990 that approximately 40% of new second lieutenants 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 produced another 40% of new second lieutenants; 5% were graduates of various military academies and 15% were directly commissioned specialists in the medical corps, judge advocates and chaplains. 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 Hyundai, 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.

Characteristics
In the case of the Army School Corps, if you become a fourth-grade candidate, you will have a chance to switch to the Marine Corps. If you switch to the Marine Corps, your service period will be reduced by four months. The school corps, which was originally established as a Marine Corps, is applied from the beginning, and the service period is similarly short from the beginning.

He is the only officer in the commission process to live outside the military. The military academy lives in the compound for four or two years (5), and the academic and executive officers also live in the compound. During the semester, only military science courses that take seven more hours per week are completed, and basic military training is provided for four weeks every vacation.

Problem
Past problem

When academic officers existed in the second half of the year, school district officers were also problematic because of the widespread abuse of beatings and abuse against academic officers in the second half of the year. In particular, taking advantage of the fact that academic officers are commissioned several months later than other officers commissioned in the same year, small and medium-sized officers from the past have exercised coercive hierarchies and abused them. This is a problem only for school military officers who serve short and discharged, and unlike school military officers, the Army Academy and the Army 3rd Military Academy must serve for at least five years, so if you act like a platoon commander, it becomes difficult when you are a captain. In particular, in the case of the Korea Military Academy, which serves in the military for the rest of its life, it becomes difficult to enter the military as a consular officer if it acts like this. It is only possible for school military officers who can serve short and run away quickly.

For reference, unlike soldiers and noncommissioned officers, officers have a lot of command positions, and by the time they reach lieutenant colonel, they do not know who will be promoted first, so hobong cannot be ranked, and only rank is recognized as ranking. If an officer recognizes Hobong as a rank like a soldier or a noncommissioned officer, it is highly likely that a senior battalion commander who is not promoted will protest to a junior regiment commander who was promoted first, which will make the military command system very disturbed. For example, in the case of General Kang Sung-jak (45th Army), there are still a number of Major General Kang Sung-jak, who are senior flag bearers, and if officers are ranked by Hobong, not by rank, General Kang Sung-jak is likely to be protested by senior major general even though he is a lieutenant general. Therefore, when an officer becomes the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he becomes the highest person in the military, no matter how low his salary is. For this reason, it is customary for air force general-level officers to discharge all senior and fellow lieutenants when their juniors are promoted to general, and due to this custom, Won-cheol was inaugurated as Air Force Chief of Staff to prevent a large number of air force Lt. Gen.

Present problem

There are four major problems with school district officers due to their structural defects.

First, it is the only district selection process among all officer commission processes. Not to mention each military academy, the Army 3rd Military Academy, the Bachelor's Officer, and the Short-Term Noncommissioned Officer are all selected from the national constituency, so they cannot pass unless they reach a certain level. However, school district officers are selected only within the university because they are selected by regional districts, not by national districts, and for this reason, officers with suspected qualifications are appointed in the case of the Jijab University School Corps. Of course, due to these problems, the head of the school district is a lieutenant colonel in the case of the Jijab University School District. In the aftermath of a sharp drop in the number of applicants for school district officers in 2022, some prestigious university heads were demoted to lieutenant colonel. Originally, a school district officer must have a B or higher to apply, but it is true that not only B but also higher A's in Jijab University are lower than C's in prestigious universities. Due to this blind spot, poor officers continue to be mass-produced in the school district. According to the "List of Student Military Education Groups" below, the school groups that were lost due to the closure of schools are these school groups at Jijab University, and the officers produced from them cannot guarantee their qualifications. This is because the qualification for applying for officers is more than graduating from a university, but Jijab University cannot serve as a university at all.

Second, it is the only system that conducts extraterritorial training among all training courses of the Korean Armed Forces. For this reason, it is common for fourth-grade candidates to gather third-grade candidates without the knowledge of the disciplinary officer, and there is also a military absurdity. The 3rd and 4th grade cadets of each military academy are essentially different from the 4th grade candidates of the school district officer because they are the number of people moving under the control of the instructor. In the end, there is a big problem that even though he is a soldier, he is not excessively controlled.

Third, despite having the largest number of people, the service period is the shortest. Short service periods continue to cause command gaps. For example, a platoon leader of the Korea Military Academy, a bachelor's officer, and a school military officer serves in one company, and since it is a principle to serve only one year as a platoon leader, he is transferred to another unit and becomes an aide after a year. The rank of Bachelor of Arts is already captain. With this class, you can no longer serve as a platoon leader and join the Captain Command and Staff Course. School military officers are discharged from the military because their mandatory service period has expired. If this happens, the company will have 0 platoon leaders, and all three platoon leaders will have a lot of difficulties in their work because they are new platoon leaders. As a way to compensate for this problem, it can be solved by reducing the number of school district officers to some extent [6] and introducing a "combat command completion officer" system that promotes outstanding noncommissioned officers to the rank of platoon leader. When appointed, a combat commander is a system in which he becomes a platoon commander in a division different from the division where he served as a noncommissioned officer and serves as a platoon commander for more than 20 years. In addition, the introduction of the combat command quasi-commissioned officer system has another advantage of resolving the personnel deficit of officers because fewer lieutenants are commissioned.

Fourth, the number of applicants is decreasing every year because it acts as a negative factor for employment. In large companies, the door to employment is becoming narrower for officers who have graduated from college for at least two years as they are hired as new employees within six to 12 months of college or only those who are scheduled to graduate from college. As a result, graduates of prestigious universities are increasingly avoiding school district officers, so some universities are reducing their quota from colonel-level school districts (more than 50 per rider) to lieutenant-colonel-level school districts (about 15 per rider).

List of student military education groups
Army

The following is a list of universities with the Army Student Military Education Corps. It is in single order, and the area followed the classification of student military schools.[7] The year of installation was based on the year of promotion or installation after being officially granted a single number, not in the form of division. Navy and Marine Air force

Abolished school district

 * Seoul National University of Education - 175th Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2015 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)


 * Daegu National University of Education - 177th Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2015 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)


 * Busan National University of Education - 178th Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2015 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)


 * Gwangju National University of Education - 179th Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2015 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)


 * Jinju National University of Education - 181st Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2015 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)


 * Seonam University - 182nd Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2018 / closed school)


 * Chuncheon National University of Education - 180th Student Military Education Group (abolished in 2021 / plans to support candidates, insufficient student interest, etc.)

Instance of a foreign country
Except for Korea, only a few countries, such as the United States and India, operate the school district officer system, and most of them do not.

The United States

It operates the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and must be from the Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) for minors. The Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) is trained from elementary school and mainly studies formal training or war history, but does not provide direct military training. In the case of the Reserve Officers Training Group (ROTC), when a former minor Reserve Officers Training Group (JROTC) goes to college, they train from the first grade of college and train for four years.

The number of U.S. school officers commissioned as second lieutenant is the same as Green To Gold, but like most master officers, they are discharged as reserve at the same time as the so-called commissioned officers and are placed on active duty only as many as 5% and as little as 1-2%.

If any of the people who have been discharged from the U.S. due to the expiration of military service are second lieutenant in the military service, it is safe to say that they are 100% from ROTC. Unlike the Korean Armed Forces, the U.S. military must be commissioned as a lieutenant and then serve two years on active duty to be promoted to lieutenant, but since it usually serves for more than three years, non-ROTC personnel are discharged at least as lieutenant. This is consistent with pre-training the personnel to be conscripted as officers, which is the original meaning of ROTC.

Ties with United States ROTC
Cadets of the United States Reserve Officers' Training Corps routinely collaborate with their South Korean counterparts in cultural exchanges such as the Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency (CULP) program.