The South Korean navy’s training ship, the ROKS Hansando, pulled into Pearl Harbor on Thursday as midshipmen of the Republic of Korea Naval Academy learn what it will look like to actually lead their country’s navy at sea.
Their voyage will take them to ports across both the Pacific and Indian oceans. But their stop in Hawaii is especially important.
On Friday, a group of Korean sailors and midshipmen visited the Maunalani Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Kaimuki. While there, they gave a musical performance to several U.S. military veterans at the facility – including those who had fought in the Korean War to defend South Korea from the invading North.
Andres Aguillon of Ewa Beach spent two years in Korea fighting as a soldier in the 3rd Infantry Division. He recalled that “we were always in combat and always in the front line.” He recalled that the Koreans he encountered, whether civilians or soldiers, were “always hungry” and that for them it was a time of constant pain and desperation.
He said that seeing young Korean navy personnel visiting Hawaii decades later who can “sing and talk story” is a major change. Far from the hungry and beleaguered Koreans he saw during the war, they’ve sailed from a country that now boasts the world’s 10th-largest economy and is a major player on the global stage. Korean products and culture have taken the world by storm.
“Today, Korea is very modern,” Aguillon said. “They’re able to compete, (and) they’re armed with the knowledge of yesterday.”
This year marks 75 years since the beginning of the Korean conflict. Capt. Kim Hyungdon, chief of staff of the South Korean Navy’s Cruise Training Group, said that “this year, especially for the Korean War veterans, we are doing much more events and commemorations with the anniversary.”
The Hansando already stopped on Guam before making its way to Hawaii. When it wraps up in the islands here, it will make its way to New Zealand, where the midshipmen also will pay tribute to Korean War veterans from that country. They also are slated to meet with Korean War veterans during stops in Australia, the Philippines and Thailand.
“If not for the countries that came to fight during the Korean War, the Republic of Korea – the free side – would not have existed. Our prosperity and freedom is due to that help,” Kim said. “So it’s kind of an obvious thing as Koreans to pay tribute and visit those countries and things.”
But Korea’s connection to Hawaii runs deeper than Korean veterans living here today. The first Korean immigrants who came to America arrived in Hawaii, and during Imperial Japan’s occupation of Korea, Hawaii became a major destination for exiled revolutionaries and eventually became a major organizing center for the Korean independence movement.
One of those exiles was Syngman Rhee, who after World War II returned and became South Korea’s controversial first president. He ruled from 1948 until he was overthrown in 1960. After he was overthrown he lived out the rest of his life in exile in Honolulu, eventually dying peacefully at the Maunalani center in 1965.
“(Hawaii) is very very important, ” Kim said. “It has very deep meaning to our country.”
Kim first came to Hawaii himself years ago as a midshipman. He’s now returning, leading a new generation as they learn about leadership and, he hopes, about the importance Hawaii holds to both their history and their future. Hawaii is the home of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the nerve center of all American military operations in the Pacific, including the Korean Peninsula.
Though an armistice brought a halt to the Korean War in 1953, no formal peace agreement has ever been signed. North and South Korean forces still stare each other down across the border both from land and at sea. South Korea also has had disputes with China in the Yellow Sea.
The U.S. has sought to bolster military and diplomatic cooperation between Japan, South Korea and itself, with many of the talks to do so held in Hawaii. The three have increased joint military training and maneuvers. Meanwhile, North Korea has sought to bolster its alliances with both Russia and China, even sending soldiers to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Korean people think of the ROK-U.S. Alliance as being of the utmost importance,” Kim said. “We also wish that the people in the United States also think of the ROK-U.S. alliance as important as we do.”
The Hansando, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, is the Korean navy’s first ship built specifically for training. It includes classrooms for midshipmen to participate in workshops and listen to lectures. It made its first voyage in 2022 and arrived in Pearl Harbor not long after the conclusion of the biennial Exercise Rim of the Pacific.
The South Korean navy, which is a regular RIMPAC participant, turned 70 this year and has been playing an increasingly key role in Seoul’s defense and foreign policies. The standoff between North and South Korea physically isolates it from mainland Asia, making the Republic of Korea dependent on the sea and maritime trade to support itself.
To that end, South Korea has grown into a major shipbuilding nation, producing both merchant ships and manufacturing warships. Lately, the United States, which has seen its shipbuilding sector fall on hard times, has sought out partnerships with South Korean companies to modernize aging shipyards on its shores.
President Donald Trump has touted efforts to make those plans materialize since coming to office, saying it would be key to “making American shipbuilding great again.” But relations between the U.S. and South Korea are facing new challenges as Trump ratchets up pressure on tariffs and questions the value of traditional alliances.
This month, a controversial raid by ICE agents at a Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Ga., further complicated the relationship. On Sept. 4, federal agents descended on the plant in what federal officials are calling one of, if not the, largest ever Department of Homeland Security operation on a single site.
The agents swooped in with helicopters and armored vehicles, detaining approximately 475 South Korean workers that were working to set up the plant. Many were cuffed, shackled and taken to a crowded detention center that many described as unsafe and unsanitary. Workers were held for weeks despite some apparently having fully legal status to work at the plant.
The long-planned factory has been touted by Georgia state leaders of both parties who promised it would bring in 8, 500 jobs and transform the rural area’s economy. The plan was to bring in highly skilled Korean labor to help build the state-of-the-art facility and to train American workers in advanced manufacturing skills and technology.
South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae Myung called the raid “bewildering” and said it would likely dissuade Korean companies and workers from choosing to do business in the United States. Trump took to Truth Social, a social media platform that he owns, where he wrote in a post, “I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize Investment into America by outside Countries or Companies.”
“We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own ‘game,’ sometime into the not too distant future!” he added. “Chips, Semiconductors, Computers, Ships, Trains, and so many other products we have to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn, because we used to be great at it, but not anymore.”
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