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The Commander of U.S. Forces Korea Gen. Burwell Bell on Monday expressed hope that Korea and the U.S. will decide a specific date for handing over wartime operational control of Seoul¡¯s troops by the first half of 2007. That is the time when the two sides are to come up with a roadmap for a new command relationship.
Korean military authorities have said the timetable will be determined by the Military Committee Meeting (MCM), which will evaluate the security environment on the peninsula every year between 2007 and 2011. The commander¡¯s remarks, in a press conference at the Yongsan base command center, suggest that discord between the allies about when full operational control will be handed to Korea is not over.
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The Commander of U.S. Forces Korea Gen. Burwell Bell talks to reporters at the Yongsan base command center on Monday.
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¡ß¡®Extended Deterrence¡¯
Bell also said the two allies agreed to set up a joint planning team to carry out the road map toward a new command relationship. Bell, who has previously stressed a number of times that the handover of wartime control should take place in 2009, emphasized the need to determine when it will take place to clarify where responsibilities will lie. However, he expressed support for a decision at the Security Consultative Meeting earlier this month that it will happen sometime between the two countries¡¯ target dates of Oct. 15, 2009 and March 15, 2012.
The term ¡°extended deterrence¡± in the joint communiqué issued by the SCM on Oct. 21 ¡°is not a military options package nor does it represent a change in the nuclear umbrella commitment by the U.S. The extended deterrence is the nuclear umbrella.¡± That again bodes ill for any swift harmonization of views between the two sides what the term means, since Seoul says it is an improved expression committing the U.S. in greater detail to providing a nuclear umbrella.
Asked what instructions exactly he was given about the North Korean nuclear crisis from the MCM, another point Korean and U.S. officials disagreed on, he said he was not to deal with ¡°any kind of operational plan.¡± The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff has said Bell was mandated to draw up plans for military preparedness including revisions to the master strategy for war with the North, OPLAN 5027, though there were no directions to draw up operational plans for U.S. guarantees of a nuclear umbrella.
¡ß Another Nuclear test?
"The nuclear test in and of itself, in my view, no way affects the balance of power,¡± Bell said. But he expressed regret that North Korea violated international treaties and pledges and urged the country to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program. "I can only surmise that since they've tested one, that we would see some time in the future yet again another test of a nuclear device,¡± Bell said. Asked about reports in the U.S. press that the U.S. and South Korea are planning a pre-emptive attack on the North in an emergency, Bell said, "The notion of Combined Forces Command developing pre-emptive strike plans -- as has been reported in some news media -- is simply not the case.¡± Bell declined to say what he feels about Korea¡¯s participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) aimed at intercepting North Korean ships. He stressed the PSI was a diplomatic matter and had therefore nothing to do with the duties of Combined Forces Command.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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