Sources on Sunday said Seoul will “carefully negotiate” with Washington by June and determine what functions it will have to perform, considering that managing the armistice is extremely sensitive both politically and diplomatically. That suggests the handover of these functions could turn into yet another bone of contention between the allies. South Korea is to take over full operational control of its troops in wartime as well as peace sometime between October 2009 and March 2012.

North Korean soldiers observe the south side through binoculars at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, on Nov. 1, 2006./AP

If Seoul takes over the UNC functions, incidents such as shooting in the demilitarized zone will be handled by South Korea, instead of an investigation panel under the UNC. In the Korean movie “Joint Security Area,” it was investigators from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission who probed a murder case in the DMZ. But south of the Military Demarcation Line, such investigations would then be handled by South Korea. Once Seoul takes over functions of the UNC, the secretary of the UN Military Armistice Commission, the body monitoring the armistice, will be filled by the South Korean instead of the U.S. military, the source said. North Korea will not like the idea.

"The U.S. government in the annual Security Policy Initiative meeting this summer said it wants to hand over most of the functions the UNC has performed in taking care of the armistice to South Korea," the source said. Another source said the U.S. government came up with the idea and the Korean government and the military are thinking hard about to what extent they should accept “due to concerns that the issue is highly sensitive and that the U.S. may be trying to wash its hands of UNC matters.”

The UNC is led by the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea and mainly operated by the U.S. military. Its major task is supervision of the armistice. The UNC currently approves personnel and items that pass the Gyeongui and Donghae railways and inter-Korean roads within the DMZ, but for convenience South Korea already manages related procedures. One major UNC task the U.S. wants to hand over is special investigations into violations of the armistice including shootings in the DMZ, according to sources.

Pundits say the idea is gradually to hand over the responsibilities the UNC has performed to South Korea while maintaining UNC's authority until the armistice is transformed into a peace treaty. The UNC served as the top military command leading 740,000 soldiers from 16 nations that took part in the Korean War but was reduced to a mainly symbolic entity after the armistice in 1953, when most except the U.S. pulled out of the peninsula. However, 15 countries including the U.K. and France dispatch staff officers or the military attaches in their embassies double as liaison officers.

(englishnews@chosun.com )