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He added it would be “foolish” for Korea to take over control only for the sake of pride, when the U.S. is capable of dispatching additional troops that would cost some W1,300 trillion (US$1=W965) for the first 90 days during a war if it has full operational control. To reach the same capability would cost Korea the budget of 10 years, he said. Chun headed the Korean negotiating team for the handover of peacetime operational control from the U.S. from 1991 to 1992. Peacetime control was returned to Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff on Dec. 1, 1994 under a 1992 agreement between the two allies.

Chun made the remarks in an interview with the Roh-friendly online newspaper OhmyNews. “The U.S can automatically intervene in a war on the Korean Peninsula only when it has operational control. Without the control, additional U.S soldiers cannot easily be dispatched to Korea if public criticism against the dispatch escalates in the U.S.,” he said. He admitted the risk for a war on the peninsula has diminished significantly since the time he negotiated for the return of peacetime operational control. “But with threats from North Korea remaining, the background for leaving wartime operational control in the hands of the U.S. is still valid,” he added.

Chun said it is“unprofitable for Korea to take back the control earlier than scheduled, and it is an attempt to hurt the world’s most powerful and effective combined defense system.” If Korea takes over sole wartime operational control, a system set up under operation plan 5027, believed to be one of the world’s most watertight military strategies, will “collapse,” he warned. “In terms of military power, South Korea has the ability to defeat North Korea without additional help from the U.S. But if the people decide that the government lacks the capability to lead the military or to wage war, it will cause widespread panic,” he said. “If South Korea fails to overcome the panic in the first three or four days of the war, the country would face a final crisis.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )