hankyoreh

the 564-person capacity Harmony Flower passenger boat leaves Baegnyeongdo for the mainland port at Incheon with just a few passengers

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

The US and South Korea have signed an agreement that stipulates that the US will get involved early on in the event of a limited conflict such as what occurred when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island in 2010. Since operational control is currently divided, with the ROK military in control for limited conflicts in peace time and the US forces taking the lead in the event of all-out war, it is expected that this change will give even more leadership authority to the US military.

On Mar. 22, Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James Thurman, commander of the combined US and ROK forces, signed a plan detailing how the combined forces would respond to limited provocations by the North, Eom Hyo-shik, press officer for the joint chiefs, said on Mar. 24.

“This is a plan for responding to limited provocations with ROK forces in the lead and US forces providing support. We have been discussing this with the consent of the chairman of the US-ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff since North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island,” said Eom. “This plan describes the process for discussing what combined action the US and South Korea should take if North Korea makes another provocation, and it contains measures for a strong and decisive response.”

The core of the plan is allowing early intervention by the US army even in limited engagements in peacetime when ROK forces have command control, on the condition that ROK forces request the intervention. According to previous agreements, if a limited conflict broke out, ROK forces would respond independently, while US forces would decide on their own whether to intervene or not after discussing the issue with their ROK counterparts.

“This plan will have the effect of deterring North Korea from making provocations,” Jung said. “And if Pyongyang does make a provocation, they will bitterly regret it.”

“At present, North Korean provocations are at a serious level, but this plan shows the strength of the US-ROK alliance to respond to those provocations,” said Thurman.

The origins of the plan can be traced back to the North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in Nov. 2010. At the time, South Korea launched some of its most powerful F-15 fighters, but they were forced to return to base without making any retaliation. This is because of the regulations governing skirmishes during a ceasefire, according to which the commander of the combined US-ROK forces (the UN commander) must give their consent before F-15 fighters attack North Korea.

But with this plan, South Korea gains even stronger psychological and physical deterrence against North Korean provocations. North Korea has often started limited skirmishes in the West Sea area, which is controlled by ROK forces. These have included naval battles and the Yeonpyeong bombardment.

Now, if North Korea plans a military provocation as it has in the past, it will have to bear in mind that US forces may be involved from the beginning of the action.

If ROK-US forces are to make joint responses even in limited engagements in peacetime, this raises the status of US forces in Korea even higher. If US forces get involved in the early stage, it is also possible that they could effectively exercise the entire operational control. This could even lead to a renewed discussion of the decision to restore wartime operational control to the ROK army in 2015.

From the perspective of the US forces, this allows them some degree of control over the risk that a local conflict could turn into something worse. If ROK forces respond even to limited North Korean provocations by “striking against the source of the attack, the support forces, and the commanders who ordered it,” as Kim Kwan-jin, South Korean defense minister, and other top army brass have directed, the possibility of escalation therefore increases. This is why it is believed that the US military would deliberate with ROK forces to carefully control the nature and extent of the skirmish from the onset.

“This plan will mean that even South Korea’s peacetime operational control will fall under US restrictions, giving the US an even greater influence on the situation on the Korean peninsula,” said Kim Jong-dae, editor of the magazine Defense 21+.

“While North Korea may feel pressured by the idea of early intervention by the US, its assumption that it can deal with the US [instead of South Korea] will be reinforced even more.”

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