ROK Armed Forces
From constabulary to mass army under US equipment and advisers, 1950-53 -- ancestor structure, not today's ORBAT.
The ROK Army of June 1950 was light, poorly armed, and politically purged. By 1953 it was a large conscript force trained under US equipment tables -- the ancestor of today's ROK military, not the same thing as a current ORBAT.
UN Command was a US-run coalition with distinct national caveats. Chinese "volunteers" were a regular PLA expedition in all but name. Soviet pilots flew in MiG Alley under thin cover.
Systems
Korean People's Army
Soviet-equipped invasion force of June 1950, shattered after Inchon, then rebuilt behind Chinese weight.
United Nations Command
US-led coalition under UNSC authority; sixteen combat contributors.
People's Volunteer Army
Chinese expedition that reversed the Yalu campaign and held the 1951-53 line.
Air war / MiG Alley
First large jet campaign; Soviet pilots in Chinese/NK markings -- historically noted, not a tactics guide.
Armistice machinery
MAC, NNSC, DMZ -- institutions that outlived the shooting.
Meters
Peninsula destruction
91
Coalition complexity
78
Civilian share of dead
88
Legal unfinishedness
95
Jet-age air war
70
Memory gap (English)
62
Hotspots
Pusan Perimeter
The August 1950 pocket that kept a southern state alive.
Inchon-Seoul
September 1950 landing and capital recapture.
Yalu / Jangjin (Chosin)
November-December 1950: China's intervention and the winter retreat.
Midline ridges
Heartbreak, Pork Chop, Arrowhead -- 1951-53 outpost war.
MiG Alley
Northwestern airspace where jets fought over the Yalu approaches.
Materials
Rice and refugees
A summer invasion at planting time; millions of displaced civilians on the roads.
Winter kit
1950-51: frostbite as a force destroyer in the northern mountains.
Bombs on the north
Dams, cities and rail -- an air campaign whose civilian cost is still researched.
Aid and reconstruction
UNKRA and US aid as the first layer of southern recovery.
Naval gunfire and carrier air from UN ships were constant; this was never only an infantry ridge war.
Force history here stops at structure and campaign roles. It is not a guide to present deployments.