I was stationed there more than a generation ago. Even then we “joked” that we were there to keep the South Koreans from going North. Many people forget that a few divisions of the ROK Army fought with us in Vietnam and scared the crap out of the Viet Cong and NVA.
From my experience if you were a ROK trooper you
had better not be caught sleeping while on guard duty.
It was good to have those guys along side us.
I’ve always heard that the ROKs are several light years beyond ferocious. Absolutely first rate. On the other hand, the North has like a gazillion wild men to field, plus all that artillery overlooking Seoul, so any conflict would be hellacious.