The Board of Marshals () was the ministry which managed overall the military of the

Korean Empire The Korean Empire, officially the Empire of Korea or Imperial Korea, was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. The empire lasted until the Japanese annexation of Korea in August 1910. Dur ...

. This was for centralizing power towards the then-emperor,

Gojong of the Korean Empire Gojong (; 8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919), personal name Yi Myeongbok (), later Yi Hui (), also known as the Gwangmu Emperor (), was the penultimate Korean monarch. He ruled Korea for 43 years, from 1864 to 1907, first as the last king ...

. Gojong established it to have the supreme command of the army. After the establishment of the board, the power of the military authorities was handed to the Emperor. Two

regiments A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service, or specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted in one ...

of both the Imperial Guards and the City Guards were organized to guard the capital city, Seoul. The Board then commissioned

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

Military Engineers Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics be ...

, and a

Military Band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind instrument, wind and percussion instruments. The conducting, conductor of a ...

. The total number of the modernized army grew to a significant number of 28,000 just before the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. After the Japanese won, the Japanese disbanded the ministry to reduce and later remove all military power from the Emperor.

Organization

The Board of Marshals was consists of four organizations. Followings are the organizations and their roles: # Military Affairs Section: Responsible for preparing battles # Prosecuting Section: Responsible for punishing the personnels # Recording Section: Responsible for recording # Accounting Section: Responsible for managing budget

References

*The Military History of Korea. Seoul: HQ of the Army of R.O.Korea, 1977. Print. Military history of Korea Korean Empire {{Korea-hist-stub