South Korea's efforts to reclaim wartime operational control of its military forces from the US might gain momentum under the current US administration, which has hinted that its allies should shore up their responsibility for regional security challenges, experts said Monday.
The transfer of military OPCON from Washington to Seoul has existed as a major issue between the allies for decades, but concerns surrounding it have been exacerbated with US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable approach to foreign policy.
Nodding towards a recent series of reports tied to the Trump administration’s foreign policy actions, Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that the issue of the transfer is likely to resurface from time to time throughout Trump’s presidency.
"The US will continue its traditional role of preventing wars, but now it is up to Washington's allies to take on the responsibility of conventional deterrence — a military strategy that uses conventional weapons to prevent an aggressor from initiating conflict," said the military strategy expert in a phone interview.
“For the US, it is better for them if South Korea reclaims OPCON, so the related issues are likely to resurface from time to time from now on,” he added.
Last month, Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, said in his written statement for a US Senate confirmation hearing that he “supports efforts to bolster South Korea’s role in the alliance” when asked about OPCON transfer. Some believe his remark implies a growing possibility of the Trump administration shifting towards the direction of handing OPCON back to Seoul.
Colby added that “Trump's vision of foreign policy involves empowering capable and willing allies like South Korea.” This statement could align with the sentiment of the recently leaked “Interim National Defense Strategy Guidance” signed by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and distributed throughout the Pentagon last month, according to The Washington Post. The secret memo said that the US military will prioritize deterring China’s possible seizure of Taiwan and bolstering homeland defense. The US would also pressure allies in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia to increase their role in deterring risks tied to Russia, North Korea and Iran, the report added.
Another Korean expert highlighted the importance of Seoul reclaiming OPCON given the possibility of Trump threatening to pull out the 28,500 US troops stationed here.
“If the Democratic Party of Korea wins in the upcoming presidential election, the OPCON transfer must be immediately pursued,” Hong Hyun-ik, an emeritus senior fellow at Sejong Institute, said during a debate hosted by the liberal main opposition party at the National Assembly last week.
“The leaked Interim National Defense Strategy Guide means that the US is planning to let South Korea deal with all threats (in the region) except for deterring China. The South Korean military has failed to foster its own ability to plan wartime operations and command them,” he said.
If the US decides to pull out its troops without transferring OPCON to Seoul, the South would be stuck in a state of paralysis against threats from the North, Hong explained.
But the issue of transferring military OPCON is more complicated than it appears on the surface, and Seoul needs to be wary of the Trump administration’s goal of deterring threats from China, according to a military expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
“The key is to think about the US’ grand strategy on deterring China and whether handing back military OPCON to Seoul will contribute to Washington’s long-term goal,” Yu Ji-hoon, director of external cooperation at KIDA, told The Korea Herald.
“There are doubts over whether South Korea is actually ready to reclaim OPCON and I believe Washington will focus more on what Seoul can contribute as an ally to its policy goals rather than merely handing OPCON back.”
A US commander has been in control of South Korean forces since South Korean President Syngman Rhee "assigned all command authority" to US Gen. Douglas McArthur in 1950, at the beginning of the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea retook peacetime OPCON or control of its armed forces from the US in 1994. Though Seoul and Washington have held talks about transferring wartime OPCON from time to time, the transition has been postponed multiple times due to North Korea's provocations. The commander of US Forces Korea — who also serves as the commander of the Combined Forces Command — currently retains wartime OPCON.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
