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Seoul is minded to ask the United States to delay the transfer of wartime operational control of Korean troops, slated for Apr. 17, 2012, until a later year. It remains to be seen whether the request has a chance of finding a hearing.
After a briefing from the Defense Ministry on Tuesday, president-elect Lee Myung-bak's Transition Committee said the new government should reconsider the transfer of troop control after consultations with the U.S., given security threats from the North Korean nuclear problem and the South¡¯s limited defense capabilities.
Committee members said despite progress in inter-Korean economic cooperation over the past five years, the two Koreas are still at an elementary stage as far as building mutual military trust is concerned. They called for a clear understanding of the changing security situation on the peninsula and the North's superior capabilities including, at this stage, nuclear weapons.
In the briefing, Defense Ministry officials promised to study whether the timing of troop control transfer should be adjusted. A senior military officer pointed out, "The transfer of wartime operational control has already been agreed by both countries, so we have no plan right now to readjust its timing. But it may not be impossible to readjust it if the presidents of the two countries reach an agreement in a summit from a political viewpoint, given that the president elect has a strong will."
Meanwhile, the Transition Committee decided the new government will make it a top priority to find and repatriate South Korean prisoners of war in North Korea. It also decided to comprehensively reconsider Defense Reform 2020, the current government's defense program that envisages reducing the armed forces from 680,000 to 500,000 by 2020. The new government will organize a 1,000-strong standing army reserved for UN peacekeeping operations and drastically reduce the size of protected areas near the Military Demarcation Line.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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