Conscription in South Korea
Conscription in South Korea has existed since 1957 and requires male citizens between the ages of 18 and 28 to perform in the army compulsory military service. Women are not required to perform military service, but may voluntarily enlist.
Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)
Officers in the Joseon army came exclusively from the aristocracy, but unlike the highly militarist Japanese aristocracy trained to be soldiers from their youth onward, for the Joseon aristocracy scholarship was valued and war was disparaged as something unworthy of a Confucian gentleman-scholar. The quality of Korean generalship was very variable with some Korean officers being able and others being men who had not devoted much time to the study of war, preferring archery, writing, practicing their calligraphy, and reading Confucian classics. Korean infantrymen wore a Chinese-style hat, but no armor. The standard Korean sword was Hwando a curved sword commonly used by Joseon soldiers during peace time that is shorter, but lighter than Japanese counterpart. A uniquely Korean weapon was the flail, a -long hardwood stick, painted red, acting as the handle for a chain attached to a shaft with iron nails. Joseon infantrymen often fought as archers, and a Japanese source from 1592 commented Koreans were superior as soldiers to the Japanese only as archers because their bows had a range of against the of Japanese archers.