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President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday agreed in principle that Washington will hand over wartime operational control of Korean forces to Seoul. The timing is to be decided in the bilateral Security Consultative Meeting next month. The dismantling of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, which has assured the defense of South Korea since 1978, has become irreversible. The president turned a deaf ear to pleas to suspend discussions about operational control because it will cause a security crisis by former defense ministers, veterans, former chief diplomats and vice ministers, former police chiefs, intellectuals and religious figures.
This government wants to take over control in 2012, and the U.S. Defense Department 2009. Chances are that the two countries will compromise on sometime between 2009 and 2012. But leading figures here worry that neither 2009 nor 2012 are adequate for our sole exercise of operational control of our forces.
This administration says taking over sole troop control will not lead to additional cuts in the U.S. Forces Korea or a cut in American reinforcements in case of war. But how can that be guaranteed? After the summit, Bush said the time of the move of the U.S. Forces Korea and their size will be concluded through negotiations with the South Korean government. Though it is unclear what he meant, this suggests that the operational control issue may be linked to the size of the USFK. But the CFC¡¯s functions have already been impaired since the issue came up, giving rise to fears of a security vacuum.
Roh told reporters after the summit that operational control is not a political issue. But it is the president himself who politicized the matter, launching a propaganda war, hyping the operational control issue as if it were a representative commodity of independence. "South Korea is the only country whose armed forces don't exercise operational control of their troops,¡± he said. It is late but not too late for Roh to correct his mistake by leaving the timetable for the next government to decide.
The Korean and American presidents skipped over the North Korean nuclear and missile issue in view of the vast gap in their opinions. But even that did not go as intended. The Bush administration is pushing for additional sanctions against North Korea, but Roh disagrees, saying, "This is no time to discuss other sanctions." The government says the two presidents agreed to specify ¡°joint measures¡± to the stalled six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program. But nothing is said to have been agreed upon even between working-level officials.
Roh told U.S. officials the summit confirmed that Korea-U.S. relations are friendly and will develop further in future. Whatever made him say that? The New York Times reports that differences between Seoul and Washington on North Korea are as wide as East Sea. The Korea-U.S. summit showed if anything what an alliance on the brink of divorce looks like.
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