Troop control transfer delayed

JoongAng Daily ^ | 6/302010 | Ser Myo-ja

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Leaders of South Korea and the United States have delayed Seoul’s scheduled takeover of wartime operational control of its troops to Dec. 1, 2015, pushing back the transfer date three years and seven months.

The decision was made at a meeting between Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama before the Group of 20 financial summit here on Saturday. The two leaders also discussed security issues and North Korea’s recent provocation, government officials said.

When the 1950-53 Korean War began, South Korea handed over peacetime and wartime operational control of its soldiers to the U.S.-led United Nations Command, after which the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command gained the authority. In 1994, Seoul regained peacetime control, and the Roh Moo-hyun administration struck a deal with Washington in 2007 that Seoul would command its troops in wartime starting April 17, 2012.

The Lee administration, however, has said an altered security environment on the Peninsula made the transfer of authority inappropriate. Since the agreement in 2007, North Korea conducted a second nuclear test in May 2009.

Now that a new date has been chosen, Lee and Obama agreed to order their defense policy makers to map out a new transition plan as well. Defense and foreign affairs ministers of the two nations will meet in July. The two presidents said they expect the meeting to bolster their alliance.

In a media briefing, Kim Sung-hwan, Blue House senior secretary for foreign affairs and security, rejected some liberal politicians’ views that Seoul was abandoning its “military sovereignty.” He also dismissed speculation that Washington had requested something in return for agreeing with Seoul’s request.

[valkyry1]

Whole lots of things cooking around the world right now.