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A U.S. defense department official said Tuesday the Security Consultative Meeting in Washington next month will decide the definitive timetable for a handover of wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul. The official said dialogue about the handover, which is proceeding in an equivocal and imprecise manner, is not what the Korean people would want. Korea wants to regain troop control in 2012, while the U.S. is hoping for a 2009 turnover.
The official said the U.S. first became aware of Korea¡¯s 2012 target date after reading about it in a report in the Korean press in June, and received a formal notification in July. Asked if the timeframe is perhaps too hasty, the official said since the pledge from Korea to take over its own defense was borne out of national sentiment, dragging the issue out over a long period of time would only cause unnecessary tension in relations between the two countries.
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The U.S. Second Infantry Division exercise in Paju, north of Seoul on Wednesday, May 19, 2004.
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To the question what changes may occur in the timeline if something in the equation changes, such as a nuclear test by North Korea, the official said if there is a drastic change everything may be up for discussion, but added that there were no ¡°if A happens then B, if C happens then D¡± preparations going on. On comments from some leading hopefuls for the next Korean presidency that they will renegotiate the handover if elected, the official said they sounded as if the U.S. had absolutely no say in the matter. He added once something is decided it cannot easily be reversed or altered, so there would be no renegotiations.
The official said no matter who is the president of Korea, the reason why the U.S. is moving forward with the plans is because it deems it the proper move. On U.S. reinforcements in the event of a crisis on the peninsula, the official said Combined Forces Command has plans to tackle such an event but in the future, the structure will not necessarily include a guarantee of such a deployment in the form of a document or the like.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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