The top U.S. military commander here indicated Friday that the Eighth U.S. Army (EUSA) in charge of U.S. ground troops stationed in South Korea will likely be dismantled in line with U.S. efforts to phase out what he calls "Industrial Age headquarters."
"In an information age, we have layered headquarters that complicate, rather than facilitate military operations," Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said in a press conference held inside the compound of the Yonsang Garrison in Seoul.
Bell stressed it should be understood that EUSA currently plays the role of RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration), noting that its role is "radically different than it was in the Korean War when EUSA served as war-fighting headquarters." "Whatever the two nations agree to, it will make sense for the alliance. It will ensure they continue to deter North Korea and it will assure us all that should deterrence fail we will win quickly and decisively. There will be no doubt about that," Bell told reporters.
According to informed South Korean military sources, the U.S. may take steps to dissolve EUSA and group the staff into an independent command when South Korea and the U.S. create separate commands in place of the existing Combined Forces Command (CFC) in the run-up to the U.S. handover of wartime operational control.
"But the change in EUSA is part of the U.S. broader military transformation plan, and so it is not because of the impending U.S. handover of wartime operational control to South Korea," a South Korean brigadier general said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the information.
In its transformation plan, the U.S. Army is creating three new echelons -- the unit of action (UA), unit of employment X (UEX) and unit of employment Y (UEY) -- to replace the current brigade, division, corps and army. The UEX is a unit sized between a corps and a division. EUSA will be transformed into a UEY, according to the sources.
"The number of EUSA staff might be adjusted, but the units operating under the EUSA command such as the 19th support command and 501 military intelligence will remain the same as ever here even after EUSA undergoes the planned transformation," he said.
But he declined to discuss the issue further, referring it to the USFK.
With the disbanding of the CFC, South Korea's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will take charge of its armed forces during times of peace and war.
Seoul is to take over wartime control from Washington over the next few years. The two sides are in the middle of negotiations over a timetable for the transfer. South Korea hopes to regain it by 2012, while the U.S. has proposed handing it over as early as 2009.
The USFK commander gave his support for the target year of 2009, saying South Korea is capable of taking over full operational control of its military with the backing of "bridging capabilities" the U.S. will continue to offer until the eventual handover of wartime control.
"But I think the date of the transfer is not nearly as important as the committment to deter aggression," Bell said, adding that South Korea and the U.S. will reach agreement on the timetable during the upcoming talks of defense chiefs in Washington next month.
As for bridging capabilities, Bell cited the continued presence of a U.S. Patriot missile defense unit, its surveilance aircraft and other intelligence gathering units and warfighting command systems.
In 1994, South Korea regained peacetime control of its forces, but wartime control remains in the hands of the top U.S. commander here, who heads both the U.N. Command and the CFC.
The Seoul-Washington alliance, forged in blood during the Korean War, has faced fundamental changes in recent years, as the South Korean military is moving to reduce its dependence on American forces.
The U.S., for its part, has also begun transforming its fixed military bases in South Korea into more mobile, streamlined forces under its global troop-realignment plan.
About 30,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War. The U.S. plans to cut the number of its troops here to 25,000 by 2008.
The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war, since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Seoul, Sept. 29 (Yonhap News)
USFK commander indicates Eighth U.S. Army's dismantlement |
