According to a written statement, Gates and Kim agreed to dissolve Combined Forces Command on April 17, 2012, three years later than the U.S. had proposed.

Officials say South Korea's government was not sure its forces would be ready to take on the additional responsibility any sooner.

Under the current arrangement, the two armies are separately commanded in peacetime. But if a conflict broke out with North Korea, the U.S. commander would take operational control of both.

Under Friday's agreement, the South Koreans would retain control of their military, with U.S. forces operating in support.

The agreement says the two countries will work out a detailed roadmap for the transition later this year and will hold exercises and make various preliminary moves in the coming years, including an exercise to demonstrate the new system can work shortly before it goes into effect.

There is already an agreement in place to reduce U.S. troops in South Korea to 25,000 by next year, and a U.S. official says there has been no discussion of further reductions as a result of Friday's agreement. The U.S. troop numbers are already down to 28,000.

According to the news release, Gates and Kim also agreed to accelerate the relocation of U.S. military units from their base in central Seoul to a facility further south to return the valuable land to the South Korean government as soon as possible. No specific dates were set.

The last time the U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs met, in October, was less than two weeks after North Korea's nuclear test. At the time, there was some disagreement about the annual restatement of the U.S. commitment to protect South Korea by using nuclear weapons if necessary.

Then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the commitment was as strong as ever, but his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Kwang-ung, said he was seeking a different wording. There was no mention of the issue after this meeting.

VOA News