Delegation in U.S. to oppose wartime military command handover
Lawmakers from the main opposition Grand National Party visited the United States to gain support for their opposition of the transfer of wartime military control from the U.S. to South Korea. However, they were not able to meet with officials from the U.S. department of defense as originally planned. In a meeting with Washington-based Korean media correspondents on September 21, the GNP delegation - including the National Assembly deputy head Lee Sang-deuk - said they instead voiced their opinions to members of the U.S. congress and former U.S. Forces Korea commanders. According to the GNP group, John Tillery, former head of U.S. Forces Korea and one of the officials who met with them, said that the U.S. felt like South Korea’s guest, suggesting the partnership between the two countries was strained. Republican senator Sam Brownback said that the South Korean government is regarded as a broker between North Korea and the U.S., said the delegaion.Additionally, the delegation reported that Heritage Foundation researcher Balbina Hwang told them that South Korea’s current administration may not be concerned enough about worsening relations between South Korea and the U.S. However, U.S. conservatives had a different opinion than the GNP lawmakers about the military control transfer. The train has already departed, Tillery told the GNP delegation, according to them. It is not a matter of time, but a matter of security, he said, to get the wartime control transfer completed. From this day forward, it is important to carry out the transfer in a precise manner, said Robert Riscassi, another former head of U.S. Forces Korea, the GNP members said. The matter should be seen as a sharing of burden and responsibility between the two sides, Hwang said, according to the delegation. GNP lawmakers also said former U.S. deputy defense secretary Richard Armitage hinted that if North Korea were to stage a nuclear test, all matters, including the wartime operational control transfer, should be reconsidered. According to the GNP delegation, Republican Representative Ed Royce said to the delegation that if North Korea sends the ’wrong signal,’ it could trigger an ’incorrect decision,’ citing as an example North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in 1950, the year after then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson drew a "line" over which the spread of communism was to be prevented; the delineated area, however, did not encompass the Korean peninsula.
