U.S. military mulls creating 'independent command'

The U.S. military is studying ways to establish its own command system separate from that of South Korea when Seoul regains the full operational control of its troops, the top U.S. commander in South Korea said Thursday.

"We are considering creating two independent commands -- one ROK and one U.S., with U.S. forces in a supporting role and restructured to take advantage of U.S. air and naval warfare capability," Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said in a meeting with South Korean lawmakers. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.

South Korea voluntarily put the operational control of its military under the American-led U.N. Command shortly after the Korean War broke out in 1950. It regained the peacetime control of its forces in 1994, but wartime operational control remains in the hands of the top U.S. commander here.

Since October, the two allies have been reviewing a proposal to create separate command systems in the place of the existing Combined Forces Command (CFC), Bell told the Security Forum, which consists of national defense committee lawmakers.

Bell's remarks come as the two sides are moving to dismantle the CFC by 2012, a key step toward Seoul's planned takeover of wartime operational control of its forces.

So far, South Korea has been believed to favor establishing a new combined command body to replace the CFC or reinforcing the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC), which was formed to fight on South Korea's side in the Korean War.

However, Bell and South Korean officials confirmed that they are in favor of running two separate operational commands that they believe can better suit the needs of the two countries.

"Whatever emerges, our pledge to ensure the security of your great nation will not be compromised," Bell said.

The office of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is in charge of studying the issue, plans to draw up a road map for the new system and present it to an annual meeting of the two countries's defense chiefs in October, South Korean officials said.

South Korea's military believes that the current Combined Forces Command would be ineffective if South Korea regains wartime operational control of its forces, they said.

The Seoul-Washington alliance, forged in blood during the Korean War, has faced fundamental changes in recent years, as South Korea's 650,000-strong military is moving to reduce its dependence on the U.S. military.

About 30,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The number is scheduled to go down to 25,000 by 2008.

The two sides already agreed to operate a joint panel to study what additional security roles South Korea should take over from the U.S. military.

The United States, on its part, has also begun transforming its fixed military bases in South Korea into more mobile, streamlined forces as part of its global troop realignment plan.

"If South Korea regains wartime operational control, it means the maintenance of the CFC will be impossible and that the status of the U.S. Forces Korea will likely be changed," said Hong Seong-pyo, chief of the military affairs research team at Korea National Defense University.

The two Koreas are technically in a state of war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Seoul, July 13 (Yonhap News)