(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. differ over delay of 2015 OPCON transfer
2013/08/28 17:56
(ATTN: UPDATES with more comments from South Korean defense minister, details in 7-12 paras)
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- Defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States discussed Wednesday the need to reschedule the planned transition of wartime operational control to Seoul to handle growing North Korean threats, but they failed to reach an agreement over its appropriate timing.
South Korean defense minister Kim Kwan-jin and his American counterpart Chuck Hagel held a meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus, to assess North Korea's nuclear threats and discuss whether to delay Seoul's reclamation of its war control in order to counter rising security challenges. The transfer is currently scheduled for December 2015.
Although the two sides agreed to maintain a strong deterrence against Pyongyang, they differed on the appropriate timing of the OPCON transfer, Kim said.
"We partially agreed on the need for (the postponement of OPCON transition), but there were differing opinions," Kim told reporters after the meeting, without elaborating on the details. "We will continue to discuss this issue to reach a consensus."
Their meeting took place at a time when calls have grown to postpone the OPCON transfer following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, and its war-like threats against Seoul and Washington earlier this year.
South Korea's national security chief Kim Jang-soo is expected to visit the U.S. to further discuss the issue before Kim and Hagel hold an annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) slated for Oct. 2 in Seoul, according to officials.
Working-level consultations have been underway to figure out whether the two sides needed to reschedule the transition, and if so, under what condition it should be done, Kim said.
Preconditions for rescheduling include changing the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean military's combat capabilities against North Korea's missiles and nuclear weapons and Seoul's readiness to take back its wartime control, he noted.
Although the OPCON transfer has been discussed at the top-military level in the last three months, Kim said in-depth consultations are needed, as it encompasses political and diplomatic issues between the two allies.
"We will continue to discuss the issue during the SCM, but we have not yet decided when to draw a conclusion," Kim said.
Militaries of the two countries agreed earlier to conduct three assessments during their joint drills until the summer of 2015 before implementing the agreement later that year.
In the run-up to the scheduled transfer, Seoul has been stepping up its combat capability with an advanced missile defense system and longer ballistic missiles, as the South Korean forces are supposed to play a leading role under the new command structure.
During Wednesday's meeting, the two sides reviewed North Korea's latest nuclear program and agreed to come up with a strong deterrent plan against security threats on the Korean Peninsula, a senior official said.
Although Pyongyang has not yet mastered the technology to miniaturize a nuclear device to fit one of its missiles, a senior Seoul official said it could happen in the foreseeable future and the two sides should prepare measures to counter the threats.
"U.S. officials also consider North Korea's nuclear weapons a substantial threat," the official said, requesting anonymity.
Seoul's regaining operational control of its troops in the event of war is a still a politically and ideologically controversial issue, as two Koreas still remains technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
Some emphasize the rights and responsibility as a sovereign nation, while others are concerned that an early OPCON transition may trigger miscalculations by North Korea.
South Korea handed over its operational control to the U.S.-led U.N. troops during the three-year conflict, and regained peacetime OPCON in 1994.
South Korea originally agreed to take back its wartime OPCON in April 2012. Shortly after North Korea's deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in March 2010, however, Seoul and Washington agreed to delay the schedule.
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