The Korean Veterans Association was activated in Pusan City, the wartime capital, on February 1.1952, while the Korean war was still going on, by a group of veterans who had fought in the war. and the association officially joined the World Veterans Federatjion(WVF) on May 8, 1961, and was elected as a council member of MVF. With the Promulgation of the law concerning the Korean Veterans association later the same ear, the KVA came to be officially chartered. On June 8. 1965, the state Council, in commemoration of KVA's affiliation with the MVF, decided to designate May 8 as Veterans Day, retroactive to 1952.

Today, the Association boasts a total membership of 3.5 million, and anyone shall be qualified for membership in the KVA who served in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps or Reserve Forces of The Republic of Korea, with such service having been completed with honorable discharge or retirement.

Under the slogan "Let's construct our country with perspiration, the country we have preserved with blood", all veterans are taking the lead, as the vanguard, in the national reconstruction and the establishment of an all-out national defense posture. The association conducts veterans welfare services such as vocational guidance and relief services of the distressed to enhance friendship among members, and other social services in support of Saemaul (New Community ) Movement. It also operates some business projects to establish a self-reliance foundation. All the members of KVA dedicate themselves to the promotion of national prestige through strengthening friendly relations and close cooperation among world veterans organizations and through launching The U.N. Korean War Veterans Revisit Program.