U.S. security officials and experts appear divided over when to transfer their country's wartime operational control of the South Korean military to the Asian country, a South Korean opposition lawmaker claimed Monday.
South Korea hopes to regain by 2012 control of the authority which it handed over to the American-led U.N. command during the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.S. side, in contrast, proposed 2009 as the transfer year.
"The U.S., spearheaded by its Defense Department, appears to move towards an early return of the wartime operational control," said Rep. Hwang Jin-hwa of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), who just returned from a five-day trip to the U.S.
"But other government ministries have positions that hurrying up too much is not desirable," said Hwang, a retired three-star Army general.
Hwang said he discussed the issue with Dennis Wilder, senior National Security Council director for East Asian affairs; Christopher Hill, an assistant secretary of state who doubles as the U.S. chief negotiator on North Korea; former Defense Secretary William Cohen; former Secretary of State Richard Armitage and security experts at private think tanks.
"U.S. officials and experts I met were speaking with one voice that the reason why the U.S. decided on the early return was the Roh Moo-hyun government (of South Korea) has repeatedly insisted on the regaining (of control)," he said.
Hwang also said he found the operational control issue "was not an issue of major concern" in the U.S., although the topic has become a hot-button topic between media organizations and political parties for the past several weeks in South Korea.
In separate news, former chiefs of U.S. troops in South Korea are scheduled to visit the country this week for talks with Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and top military leaders.
The visit by John Tilelli and Thomas A. Schwartz is not aimed at discussing the wartime control issue, but the topic will "naturally" be raised when they meet South Korean officials, said sources at Seoul's Defense Ministry.
Roh's liberal-leaning government has said the gaining of the authority is a matter of national pride and sovereignty, while conservative forces have argued it is premature to get it back, citing a persistent threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.
South Korea took back the peacetime operational control in 1994, but the wartime control still lies in the hands of the top U.S. military commander in Seoul.
The U.S. currently has 30,000 troops stationed in South Korea as to deter possible aggression from North Korea, but its troop level here is to be downsized to 25,000 by 2008 under a global troop realignment plan.
Seoul, Sept. 4 (Yonhap News)
U.S. split over when to return wartime operational control to S. Korea: lawmaker |
