According to a historic record, King Jun of the Ancient Korea (the early 30th century B.C. to 108 B.C.) was toppled by a coup in the early 2nd century B.C. and fled away by ship along with his party and thousands of subjects. It proves that there existed a fleet of large ships in the kingdom.

The navy came to have basic appearance as a regular naval force in the years of Koguryo (277 B.C. to 668 A.D.) In 396 the Koguryo navy carried out a large-scale maritime expedition, rare to be seen at that time, for territorial integration. And in the early 5th century it attacked enemy's den making a long detour by sea. The Koguryo navy, with control of the sea, victoriously conducted landing and coast defense operations as well as sea battles and expeditions.

In the early 8th century the Palhae navy, with secret maritime maneuver and surprise landing, attacked and captured a naval base of invaders in a twinkle, striking terror into the enemies' hearts. Palhae had a developed shipbuilding industry and made many big ships capable of carrying a large number of personnel and munitions. In 731 the Palhae navy beat back 300 warships of Japanese aggressors, who intruded into the East Sea of Korea, in alliance with the latter Silla which controlled the area of south of the River Taedong.

The warships of Koryo (918 to 1392) were very stout and swift.

The invention and production of cannon by Choe Mu Son in the closing years of Koryo promoted qualitative strengthening of the naval force.

The Koryo people built gunboats with water-proof and air-tight magazines for the first time in the world. Since then the hand-to-hand fight on ship gradually gave its place to firing battle.

The powerful warships of Koryo armed with guns for the first time in the world burnt down all the Japanese aggressors' warships totaling more than 500 in the sea off Jinpho in 1380.

In the period of Ri Dynasty (1392 to 1910) the navy was further strengthened. Historical records say that the kingdom had 829 warships of 13 kinds and over 50,000 seamen in the first half of the 15th century.

What was most famous at that time was the world's first iron-clad warship, the tortoise warship. The stout and swift warship with peculiar shape, simple structure and excellent fire equipment was incomparably powerful. The warship displayed its might to the full during the Imjin Patriotic War.