hankyoreh

By Gil Yun-hyung staff reporter

The new outline for the US-ROK combined command structure that was disclosed on June 1 is nearly identical in structure to the existing Combined Forces Command. The major change is that the highest figure in the combined command structure changes from the commander of US forces in Korea to the chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The proposal was tentatively agreed upon before the meeting through working-level discussions between South Korean and US officials. It is based on the principle that there should be a unified command structure for ROK and US forces. In accordance with that, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US forces in Korea are combined into the joint theater command, and the ground forces, navy, air force, navy, and special forces are placed under that as joint component commands.

In order to preserve the symbolic meaning of wartime operational control being transferred to ROK forces, the chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff is appointed as commander of combined theater command, with the commander of US forces in Korea becoming second in command. Thus, the plan puts a South Korean army general in charge of the joint theater command.

“You could say that the US and South Korea are swapping seats in the current arrangement,” an unidentified source in the Ministry of Defense said. In essence, the current combined command structure would be maintained, except for the fact that the ROK military would lead.

Furthermore, the ratio of South Korean to US chiefs of staff in the combined theater command, which is currently 1.5 to 1, would be increased to 2 to 1. Also, South Koreans would take command of all the components of the combined theater command (ground forces, navy, marines, and special forces) with the exception of the air force. In other words, the ROK military would be put in charge of the US-ROK combined theatre command and the combined component commands, while the US military would be subordinate to the ROK military. Essentially, the South Korean military would take command of the entire US-ROK combined forces.

However, a US commander would retain wartime control of the air force, the key force in contemporary warfare. This measure is seen as showing awareness of the overwhelming air supremacy and the long experience of the US 7th Air Force, which is located at Osan Air Force Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

This agreement is considerably different from the basic outline prepared by former president Roh Moo-hyun, who worked hard to regain wartime operational control. The key point of the handover of wartime control as espoused by the Roh administration was the principle of autonomous defense, the idea that South Korea should be defended by South Koreans.

In “Understanding the Issue of Handing Over Wartime Operational Control,” a document prepared in Aug. 2006 by the wartime operational control taskforce that was active at the time, the basic provision of the new combined military command was that the South Korean military would take the lead in defending South Korea, with US military forces playing a supportive role. The plan was for the South Korean and US militaries to form separate commands after the dissolution of the current CFC and exercise command separately, while also creating a new deliberative body between the two armies to facilitate close cooperation between them.

While the two countries agreed in Feb. 2007 to transfer wartime operational control to the South Korean military on Apr. 17, 2012, president Lee Myung-bak, who took power soon after, delayed this three years until Dec. 2015, after his tern as president ended.

“When I look at the latest proposal released by the Ministry of Defense, it is hard to see that they intend to have independent national defense, which was the heart of the original idea of transferring wartime operational control,” said Kim Jong-dae, editor of Defense 21+. “It is uncertain whether the South Korean military, which has been so dependent on the US, will be able to give commands to the US military, and it is also unclear whether the US will accept this.” The national goals and interests of South Korea and the US are sure to be different if war breaks out. The Ministry of Defense is not abiding by the strategic position of South Korea determining its own destiny and is instead still settling for the tactical convenience of relying upon the US, Kim suggested.

Civic groups have been more direct in their criticism. “The point of the transfer of operational control was for the South Korean army to gain its own separate command,” said Yu Yeong-jae, coordinator of US-related issues for Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea. “Since that part has been left out of the working-level agreement, this is no better than if we had scrapped the transfer of operational control.”

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