Part V Case Studies, 43 Visiting Forces in Korea

Subject(s):

Military assistance — Occupation — Military matters — Peace keeping

This chapter looks at the development of the law of visiting forces in Korea. This law begins in the aftermath of World War II, with the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese occupation since 1910. However, the winding down of that war, the establishment of an interim civil authority, and the transition from that authority to the sovereign and autonomous Republic of Korea, were probably in and of themselves not that extraordinary from the worldwide perspective. The true beginning of the modern era of visiting forces—the primary focus of this chapter—came with the invasion of the fledgling Republic by forces of its co-inhabitant on the peninsula on 25 June 1950. This act resulted in an enforcement action by the UN, which ultimately saw the forces of sixteen member states deployed in Korea under the UN flag.