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President-elect Lee Myung-bak¡¯s Transition Committee said the new government should carefully reconsider the transfer of wartime operational control of Korean troops from U.S. forces, which is slated for Apr. 17, 2012. In other words, it feels there is a need to renegotiate the terms and date of the transfer with the U.S. government after considering the North Korean nuclear standoff, security situation on the Korean peninsula and our military capabilities. The Defense Ministry said it would study whether the timing of troop control transfer should be adjusted.
According to the agreement between Korea and the U.S., between 2010 and 2011, both sides will verify the ability of the Korean military to independently handle wartime operational control of its troops and complete final supplementary measures by around March 2012. The following month, Korea and the U.S. will form separate command organizations and will cooperate both during peacetime and war through a newly created entity.
We should exercise wartime operational control of our own troops. But our country is in the unique situation where it faces the threat of a nuclear-equipped military state called North Korea. Even if it has superior military capabilities, the side that has to defend itself could sustain a fatal blow in a sudden attack. We face the double burden of being vulnerable to a sudden attack by North Korea and having to defend ourselves against such a move.
If Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command is dismantled, our military will be left on its own to handle key duties such as monitoring signs of a sudden North Korean attack, identifying and striking North Korea¡¯s long-range artillery and 100,000 special forces troops, monitoring the movement of nuclear weapons, defending against biological and chemical weapons, and protecting strategic facilities against missile attacks by the communist country. Just one of those duties requires huge amounts of military equipment. And a vast amount of capital will be required to buy it. We have no choice but to take another close look at whether our military will be ready to handle all of those duties in five years, and whether now is the right time to pour our financial resources into this area. There have been serious doubts that the U.S. would send more troops to Korea during wartime if the CFC is dismantled.
There is no telling how the situation within North Korea would change. And if such circumstances lead to a power vacuum in the communist country, China is widely expected to interfere. Under these circumstances, there is no guarantee that we can block China¡¯s interference and achieve unification alone. During unification, even Germany was reliant on the U.S. to block the backlash from the Soviet Union and convince skeptical neighbors Britain and France to support it.
The U.S., which is in the midst of a major realignment of its overseas military forces, was very willing to accept the Roh Moo-hyun administration¡¯s request to return wartime operational control of Korean troops, and it is not likely to accept our request to renegotiate. But Korea and the U.S. must not be bound by the existing agreement in verifying the capability of Korean troops in the future and in deciding what type of wartime operational structure would most benefit the security of Korea and aid peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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