U.S. Mulling Separate Wartime Command From Korea U.S. Congress Asked About Boosting UN Command in Korea USFK Chief's Questions Need Answers Regular Talks See U.S. Press Korea on Bomber Range Ex-Defense Chiefs Urge Halt to Command Handover Defense Minister Rejects Pleas on Wartime Control Ex-Defense Chiefs on Collision Course With Incumbent

Ex-defense minister Lee Sang-hoon reportedly told Yoon to stop plans to agree a road map for the handover at the Seoul-Washington Security Consultative Meeting in October, and to stake his post on persuading the president to abandon the idea. Former defense minister Kim Sung-eun added Korea does not have the military intelligence power to exercise operational control on its own and needs U.S. support. Other former defense chiefs were unanimous in demanding to know why the government is going the way it is when the reverse course, of strengthening the alliance with the U.S, is the need of the hour. After the meeting, Lee said he told Yoon, "I've sought a meeting with Gen. Burwell Ｂell, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea. If I meet him, I'll suggest that he ignores what the South Korean government says."

The combined tenures of the 13 former defense ministers covers 40 years, from 1963 to 2003. Uri Party lawmaker Cho Sung-tae, who was defense minister in the Kim Dae-jung administration, a while ago queried Yoon at the National Assembly, "Are you confident of retrieving operational control in five to six years?"

The former defense ministers clearly see that a handover of operational control within a few years would cause havoc in our national security given our present security situation and the present capabilities of our armed forces. Once we take over control, Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command would be dissolved, and the USFK would either withdraw or remain as only a symbolic presence. It is doubtful if our armed forces, if left alone, will be able to fill up the gap in military intelligence about North Korea, for which they now depend more than 90 percent on the U.S. Otherwise, nothing has changed in our security situation, where 1 million troops confront each other across the armistice line and thousands of North Korean long-range artillery pieces are aimed at Seoul. Worse, the North's nuclear and missile capabilities have been reinforced.

If the government nevertheless insists on pushing through with the handover of operational control in the hollow name of independence, the people will no longer recognize it as an administration that is taking care of their security. Will they too have to appeal to the international community, "This is not our government, so ignore what it says”?