Defense Minister stands firm in regaining wartime operation control

Amid increasing concerns for Korea’s capability to handle wartime operation control, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-woong today showed a gesture of easing public worries by confirming that US army will continue to stay in Korea even after the US fully relegates wartime operation control to Korea.

The minister, however, made it clear that the government has no intention to move an inch from its current position to push ahead with taking back wartime operational control. According to a partially unveiled roadmap out today, the government aims to be fully capable to manage operational control on its own by as early as 2012. The US has once showed its willingness to give it back to Korea even before 2009 as long as Korea is ready. It is reported that the two allies are in close talks to set up an independent system which helps the two countries continue closely coordinating security issues such as joined grills, risk management, information sharing, and wartime co-operation.

GNP leader Kang Jae-sup, meanwhile, voiced concern over the transfer and said the talk for independent operational control is in itself a move to weaken Korea-US alliance and increase possibility to totally disband United States Forces Korea in the future. He urged the talk poses a danger to national security at a time when Korea is not ready at all to cope with urgent security matters as seen in the recent North Korea missile firing.