Korea to take over wartime control in 2012

South Korea and the United States agreed that Seoul will recover wartime operational control of its armed forces in April 17, 2012, and that their Combined Forces Command will simultaneously be dissolved.

The agreement was made during a meeting in Washington on Friday between Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The United States accepted South Korea`s request that the transition should be undertaken at a measured pace to give Seoul enough time to prepare for the change.

"The two sides will disestablish the current ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command on April 17, 2012, and complete the transition to the new supporting-supported command relationship between the U.S. and ROK forces at the same time," their joint statement said. ROK is the acronym of South Korea`s official name, Republic of Korea.

The agreement met with immediate protests from the conservative politicians, veterans and activists in Seoul who are concerned that the command change would weaken Korea`s defense capability and undermine the military alliance between the two countries.

Two leading presidential hopefuls from the opposition Grand National Party claimed that the issue should be renegotiated after a new administration takes office in Korea in February 2008.

"It is wrong to fix the transfer year. There should be serious discussion again on the issue under the next government under the principle of strengthening Korea-U.S. alliance," Han Sun-kyo, spokesman for Park Geun-hye, former GNP chairwoman.

Former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak also said the target date should be flexibly readjusted in consideration of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

"If needed, the next government should renegotiate the matter with the United States depending on North Korea`s nuclear threats and tension on the peninsula," Lee said.

Their downright opposition signals that the command structure will become a major campaign theme for the next presidential election in December.

Former defense ministers and chiefs of veterans groups plan to hold a meeting today to discuss their response to Friday`s agreement. They led a series of protests against the proposed troop control last year.

Before the defense chiefs` talks, they asked the Defense Ministry to postpone the decision and pass it to the next government. But their request was rejected.

Last October, Seoul and Washington agreed to transfer wartime control sometime between Oct. 15, 2009 and Mar. 15, 2012, but have been at odds over a concrete timeline.

The United States had supported 2009 as an appropriate target year while South Korea had insisted the transition should be made at the later date of 2012, citing concerns of a security vacuum.

"There was much flexibility on the U.S. side. The atmosphere in Washington has changed a lot," Cheon Je-kook, South Korea`s assistant defense minister for policy, told reporters at a briefing.

Cheon added the U.S. side accepted South Korea`s need for the extra time to conduct test operations for an independent wartime control.

The Friday agreement marks a resolution for one of the most controversial issues between Seoul and Washington since the allies began work in 2003 to rearrange their military alliance that dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Seoul handed over full operational control of its troops to the U.S.-led United Nations forces shortly after the Korean War broke out in 1950.

It retrieved peacetime control of its military in 1994, but the United States retains wartime operational control.

During their first meeting since Gates took office, the two men also agreed to work closely to accelerate the relocation and consolidation of U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said.

In 2004, Seoul and Washington agreed to consolidate facilities and troops from the Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul and the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, north of Seoul, to Pyeongtaek by 2008. But the plan has been delayed to as late as 2013 due to continued resistance from local residents and anti-U.S. civic activists, and differences between the two sides over relocation costs and the burden of cleaning up contamination in U.S. bases.

"The two sides did not discuss specific dates," Jeon said. "The relocation plan is being delayed for a variety of reasons, and we agreed to find ways to expedite the process," he added.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to their joint readiness to counter North Korea`s military threat, and continued exercises to maintain a high-level of combined war-fighting ability.

They further agreed that their military alliance is capable of countering any security challenges from the North.

Meanwhile, Kim yesterday met his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kyuma in the first visit by a Korean defense minister to Tokyo since November 2003.

The defense chiefs discussed bilateral defense relations and reaffirmed joint efforts to ease tensions over North Korean missiles and the nuclear crises, Seoul officials said.

(davidpooh@heraldm.com)









By Jin Dae-woong