My wife is half Korean and we visited her family there about 10 years ago. Her cousin told us that Japanese women will make the short flight from Japan to Korea to look for a husband because the Korean guys are known to be tough for having endured the 2 years in the army, whereas the Japanese guys are regarded as wimps. Don’t know how much truth there is to that but it was interesting.
I’ve seen a ROK sergeant hit a private in the face with a 2 X 4 and expect him to get back up for some more abuse.