Following shakedown off Guantanamo Bay and visits to various east coast ports, Rupertus transited the Panama Canal and steamed to San Francisco.

Leaving TF 95 and steaming to Wonsan, Rupertus spent ten days off the coast near Songju and fired thousands of rounds of ammunition at shore targets.

Departing San Diego for the western Pacific again on 16 May 1953, Rupertus screened the cruiser Bremerton in TF 77, participated in shore bombardment missions off Korea, conducted hunter-killer exercises, trained Chinese Nationalist naval students in Formosan waters, and participated in the centennial celebration of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's first visit to Japan, before returning to San Diego.

After the Korean Armistice Agreement of July 1953, Rupertus continued her annual deployments to WestPac until 1960 when she was assigned Yokosuka as a homeport.

Rupertus returned to San Francisco on 13 December 1962, and following a FRAM I overhaul, which replaced her World War II armament with a modern integrated anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapons system including ASROC and QH-50 DASH, she entered her temporary homeport of Long Beach, California.

Remaining in the Far East, in June 1965 she participated in operations supporting the Gemini IV space flight; she then returned to Vietnamese waters for "Market Time" operations, boarding and inspecting many boats and ships off South Vietnam in search of Communist contraband; and provided naval gunfire support to U.S. forces in Vietnam.

With Forrestal when a series of explosions temporarily disabled the carrier on 29 July, Rupertus maneuvered to within 20 ft (6.1 m) of the crippled ship and remained alongside for a period of three hours, assisting in fighting fires, cooling magazines, and rescuing personnel thrown into the sea.

She arrived in her new homeport, Yokosuka, on 22 July, and assumed naval gunfire support responsibilities off South Vietnam on 14 August.