The National Defense Corps Incident was a death march that occurred between December 1950 and February 1951, during the Korean War, as a result of corruption.

South Korean citizens aged 17 to 40, excluding military, police and government officials, were drafted into the National Defense Corps.

[2][3] The Syngman Rhee government then adopted officers from the pro-Rhee Great Korean Youth Association [ko] into the Corps.

By June 1951, when an investigating committee made known its findings, it was reported that some 50,000[7] to 90,000 soldiers starved to death or died of disease on the march and in the training camps.

According to a 13 June 1951 article in the New York Times, approximately 300,000 men were lost to death or desertion over a three-week, 300-mile march.