hankyoreh

A claim has been raised that the South Korean government has tacitly consented to allow the United States and China to take the lead in dealing with a sudden situation in North Korea like regime collapse or large-scale riots.
The military affairs journal D&D Focus reports in its August issue released Saturday that the military leaderships of South Korea and the United States have almost completed a secretly written addendum to CONPLAN 5029 that calls for cooperation with China if the North Korean regime collapses, and that this could violate the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea by strengthening American and Chinese leadership over the issue of Korean reunification.
According to the report, then-Defense Minister Kim Tae-young reported to President Lee Myung-bak ahead of the October 2009 South Korea-United States Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) that Washington has proposed the creation of a separate plan to deal with Chinese intervention in the case of North Korean regime collapse, and that this should be included in a separate addendum to CONPLAN 5029, which includes responses to sudden situations in North Korea. Lee accepted Kim's opinion, saying that special care needed to be maintained as it could cause diplomatic problems with China. The result was an addendum to COPLAN 5029, the core of which calls for a clash to be avoided with China even if Beijing intervenes during a sudden change in North Korea, and for joint management with China of North Korean weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, there were tensions between South Korea and the United States over who would take the leadership in dealing with sudden changes in North Korea. The United States refuted Seoul's claims of responsibility and authority in managing a crisis in North Korea by arguing that Seoul has no such authority as North Korea is a separate country under international law. As a result, the two sides agreed that in the event of  sudden change in North Korea, the United States would handle North Korea's nuclear program, and other WMDs would be handled jointly by South Korea and the United States. A few years later, however, the United States has made it so it would take the lead in dealing with the problem in partnership with China, and South Korea has agreed.
D&D Focus noted that with the situation unfolding in this manner, even within South Korea's military leadership, there is criticism amongst generals that Seoul accepted the American request too rashly. Quoting core Lee administration officials, D&D Focus reports that in return for delaying the transfer of wartime operational command from April 2012 to December 2015, as requested by Seoul, Washington asked that South Korea participate in the missile defense program, purchase US aircraft for Korea's next-generation fighter program, boost South Korea's contribution to the burden sharing agreement and begin discussions of how to respond to Chinese intervention in the event of a sudden change in North Korea.
About this, the Defense Ministry said the veracity of the report was not something they could confirm.

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