United States Forces Korea

	USFK coat of arms
Korean spelling
Korean alphabet :	주한 미군
Hanja :	駐韓美軍
Revised Romanization :	juhan migun
McCune-Reischauer :	chuhan migun

The United States Forces Korea ( USFK , in English : "Armed Forces of the United States in Korea") are a major association of the armed forces of the United States . As a composite command and so-called Sub Unified Command , USFK is subordinate to the US Pacific Command (PACOM). The USFK was established in 1957 and consists of around 30,000 men.

assignment

The USFK have the task of protecting the territorial integrity of South Korea and by being stationed on the ground to act as a deterrent against any external enemies, in particular communist North Korea . At the same time, their presence in South Korea also has an impact on the subjective feeling of security of the alliance partner there and, like that of the US Forces Japan , is intended as a clear political signal for the United States' loyalty to the alliance in Southeast Asia.

The international law basis of the USFK is a mutual defense alliance that the United States concluded after the Korean War . In this, the US already headed the military command of the United Nations on the basis of several UN resolutions .

The approximately 30,000 US soldiers are relatively few in number compared to the 685,000 soldiers in South Korea. So their primary purpose is not to fight enemy troops, but to support the South Korean army until reinforcements arrive from the USA or from Japan in the form of the United States Forces Japan .

organization

The United States Forces Korea is composed of five subordinate units of the four branches of the US military, the Army , the Navy , the Air Force and the US Marine Corps , as well as the US Special Operations Command Korea (SOCKOR), which all Special units of the armed forces uniformly summarizes and leads.

Subordinate commands and units

8th Army
- 2nd Infantry Division (2nd ID)
- Army Corps of Engineers Far East District (FED)
- 19th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) (ESC)
Seventh Air Force
Commander, US Naval Forces Korea (NAVFOR-K)
Marine Forces Korea (MARFOR-K)
Special Operations Command Korea (SOCKOR)