MEDALS OF MERIT 보장
In the Award System of the Republic of Korea, Medals of Merit occupy a position just below the status of the Orders. Some Korean publications refer to them as “Medals of Honor”.
Under the heading of Orders of Merit, I have listed the Orders by their current order of precedence and within each page, I list any prior Order that had the same title. This was the easiest way to handle the differences between Orders prior to 1964/1967 and those that came after. Prior to 1964, each Order was changed under a separate law specific to that Order. But in 1964 all of the Orders and Merit Medals were brought into one specific Decorations Law. The Merit Medals present a different problem. There are a number of Merit Medals that were absorbed by other Medals, several that were created and act as a sort of 6th Class to the Orders, and still others that combined several older Merit Medals into one. But, unlike the Orders, the Merit Medals have almost always been handled as a group of medals and not as individual entities. I have laid the Merit Medals out on this website by the Series Date. As you dig deeper into the Merit Medals, I think you will find it easier to comprehend all the various nuances.
The different Series are: