The top U.S. commander here on Monday expressed hope that South Korea and the United States will be able to agree on a specific date for the transfer of wartime operational control early next year.
Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK), also raised the possibility that North Korea will perform more missile or nuclear weapon tests in the near future as the communist country refuses to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs.
"My expectation is that this plan will be completed by the end of the first half of 2007. To meet the desire of the ROK government, it is my hope that at that time we will be able to specify an exact planning date for the transfer of OPCON," Bell said in a press conference at Yongsan Garrison, the main U.S. base in central Seoul. ROK is short for the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea.
His remarks come less than two weeks after South Korea and the U.S. failed to set a target date for the transfer of wartime control during their annual alliance talks in Washington. As a stopgap measure, they agreed on the flexible transition timeline of between Oct. 15, 2009 and March 15, 2012. The two sides will soon establish a joint planing group that will develop an action plan.
South Korean officials say that the compromise agreement is instrumental in taking over wartime control by 2012, while U.S. officials say it will transfer wartime control to South Korea by the end of 2009.
In a bid to dismiss a controversy over a nuclear umbrella, Bell said, "The term 'extended deterrence' is not a military option's package nor does it represent a change in the nuclear umbrella commitment by the U.S. The extended deterrence is the nuclear umbrella."
Despite the denial by U.S. officials, South Korean officials said the phrase "extended deterrence" can be interpreted as a detailed and concrete pledge by the U.S. to extend a nuclear umbrella for South Korea in case of an attack from North Korea.
"The joint communique is significant in that a concrete nuclear strategy term was added to the existing promise of a nuclear umbrella provision. It is meaningful that we confirmed the U.S. commitment to the nuclear defense for South Korea when we are faced with the North's nuclear test," Kwon An-do, the assistant defense minister for policy, explained after the South Korean-U.S. annual defense talks in Washington.
Extended deterrence, as applied by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, means that the U.S. can provide not only tactical nuclear weapons but also strategic nuclear weapons for South Korea in case of an attack from North Korea, South Korean officials said.
"The U.S. commitment to a nuclear umbrella has been stated in every alliance SCM (Security Consultative Meeting) communique since 1978. The U.S. remains fully committed to our ally Korea and it extends to them the deterrence of our nuclear umbrella," Bell said.
The top U.S. commander also denied that he had received an order to develop "any kind of operational plan" regarding the U.S. provision of a nuclear umbrella for South Korea during a meeting of top military officers of the two countries in Washington.
Col. Park Chan-joo, chief of the military strategy division at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted that the two sides had not discussed how to work out details for the provision of a nuclear umbrella.
"The two sides shared the view that they need a military preparation plan now that a nuclear-armed North Korea has become a reality, so the instruction was given to the CFC (Combined Forces Command) to respond appropriately to threats from North Korea and revise or complement OPLAN 5027," Park told reporters in reference to the combined forces command of South Korea and the U.S. The CFC is to be dismantled and the two sides will create a joint defense system when South Korea takes over wartime control of its troops over the next few years.
In a war scenario called OPLAN 5027, jointly drawn up in 2002, South Korea and the U.S. would seek to remove the regime of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, and defeat his 1.17-million-member military in the event North Korea invades the South, but analysts say it lacks specific action plans to cope with a nuclear war.
In 1991, the U.S. withdrew hundreds of tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea following an inter-Korean agreement to denuclearize the peninsula amid global detente and arms reduction moves.
"The concept of extended deterrence is the same as that of a nuclear umbrella. But a nuclear umbrella is a political, diplomatic term while extended deterrence realizes this concept in a military and strategic manner. Extended deterrence is a more specific expression of nuclear umbrella," Park said.
Expressing concern about the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, Bell raised the possibility that North Korea will conduct more nuclear or missile tests as the communist country is not ready to give up its missile or nuclear weapons programs. But he didn't provide any intelligence that a second nuclear test was imminent.
"I can only surmise that since they tested one, we would see at some time in the future yet another test of a nuclear device," Bell said. "I think we can expect future tests as part of their program to develop these kinds of very provocative weapons."
But he expressed confidence that Pyongyang's confirmed nuclear capabilities did not change the balance of power, saying that the combined forces of the U.S. and South Korea will be able to deter any possible aggression from North Korea. The North fired seven missiles in July, including a long-range one that many believe is capable of hitting the U.S.
"I wish that North Korea would not only stop testing these devices, but stop making them and come back to the bargaining table," he said.
About 30,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War. The U.S. plans to cut that number to 25,000 by 2008.
The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war, since the Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
Seoul, Oct. 30 (Yonhap News)
USFK commander hopes to see timeline for wartime control transfer early next year |
