U.S. defense officials to visit Seoul, address OPCON transfer

Posted on : 2008-01-10 10:34 KST Modified on : 2008-01-10 10:34 KST

U.S. officials, intent on transferring wartime operational control of South Korean forces to Seoul in 2012, will travel to South Korea next week to meet President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition team, sources here said Wednesday.

David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, will lead the delegation that will be in Seoul from Monday, the sources told Yonhap. The schedule in Seoul is still being worked out, "but the focus will clearly be on the meeting with the transition team," one of the sources said.

Sedney and his team will also visit Tokyo, a trip that was previously scheduled.

The Pentagon has been planning the Seoul visit for some time, hoping to engage the incoming Seoul government in bilateral negotiations as the two countries pursue alliance readjustments.

Lee's transition team on Tuesday said that the agreed transfer of wartime operation control, commonly called OPCON, from the United States to the South Korea needs to be reviewed, based on full consultation with the Pentagon. No preference for a transfer date has been specified.

Although the team spokesman said the South Korean Defense Ministry has agreed to reconsider the timing of the transfer, the ministry spokesman soon after clarified that the understanding with the U.S. is that the issue is already closed and not open for renegotiation.

Maj. Stewart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S.

position was stated at last November's security consultative meeting.

"There has been no change to our policy stance since then," he told Yonhap through e-mail.

In a joint statement from the annual bilateral meeting of defense chiefs held in Seoul, South Korea and the U.S. said that "both sides pledged their fullest commitment to meeting agreed upon benchmarks and timelines regarding the transition."

The U.S. had both peacetime and wartime operational control of its own forces stationed in South Korea, as well as South Korean forces, placed in the hands of the U.S.-led United Nations Command shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Seoul regained peacetime OPCON in 1994.

In February last year, the two governments agreed that South Korea will take over the wartime OPCON of its military on April 17, 2012. The deal was hailed as one of the staunchest signals that South Korea was ready to take on more responsibility for its own defense as it redefined its alliance with the U.S.

But President-elect Lee and his conservative Grand National Party have long suggested that the issue needs to be revisited, questioning whether Seoul would indeed be ready by the agreed date, and if decreasing the U.S. presence in South Korea is wise.

"We will be engaging the transition team on this subject, the source said. "Our message hasn't changed on this topic, though.

OPCON transition is good for the alliance, and will only strengthen the capabilities that we have today."

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Yonhap)