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Rumsfeld’s proposal may spell bigger price tag for S.K.
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Wartime control issue linked to defense cost burden: observers
United States defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent a letter earlier this month to Korean defense minister Yoon Kwang-ung, in which he said he would like to see the U.S. hand over wartime command of Korea’s military in the year 2009, the Ministry of National Defense said Sunday. The U.S. first suggested 2009 as the year the transfer should take place during the ninth round of the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) held in Korea last July, but Rumsfeld’s letter on August 17 is seen as making the proposal official. Seoul has maintained that the handover should occur in 2012. The U.S. defense secretary reportedly also said that Korea should pay an "equitable" amount of the cost of keeping American forces in Korea, because defending Korea is their main purpose.After five rounds of negotiations, it was decided in April of last year that Korea’s share of the burden for the 2005-2006 fiscal year would be W680.4 billion, 8.9 percent less than the previous year, placing Korea’s burden now just under 40 percent of the cost of its defense. Officials from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense speculated Rumsfeld’s comments to mean the share would more likely approach the 50-percent mark; other observers predict the share of cost would be even greater for South Korea. Some observers say Rumsfeld’s letter is an attempt to link wartime command to the issue of a shift in the burden of cost. The defense ministry seemed to deny that possibility, however, calling the letter merely a "reiteration of the existing U.S. position."
