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South Korean Defense Minister and acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan in Washington, DC, on Apr. 1. (provided by the Ministry of National Defense)
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S. Korean defense minister and US acting defense secretary meet in Washington
Last month, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Park Han-ki and US Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Robert Abrams held the first meeting of the Special Permanent Military Committee (SPMC), which was set up to assess the requirements for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the US to South Korea. The special committee was activated despite the existence of the Permanent Military Committee (PMC), which already convenes the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and the USFK commander every six months, with the apparent goal of speeding up the OPCON transfer. The announcement was made by South Korean Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeong-doo in the opening remarks to his meeting with acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan in Washington, DC, on Apr. 1. Jeong explained that Park and Abrams had recently convened a SPMC meeting in order for the two sides to conduct a joint assessment of whether the South Korean military has acquired the key military capabilities that are the first requirement for the OPCON transfer. The SPMC will reportedly meet every month except for the months when the PMC is held and when all-sector military drills are being held. The agreement by South Korea and the US’ top military commanders to personally assess the conditions for the OPCON transfer calls into question whether the transfer will take place before the end of Moon Jae-in’s presidency in May 2022. During the 50th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), held in October 2018, South Korea and the US agreed to initiate the procedures for assessing the South Korean military’s initial operating capability (IOC) this year. The procedures consist of three stages: following the IOC assessment is an assessment of full operating capability (FOC) and then of full mission capability (FMC). If the first stage is completed this year and the second and third stages next year, the assessment procedures for the OPCON transfer could be wrapped up by 2021. OPCON transfer could be complicated by Korean Peninsula affairs The competition of that assessment, however, doesn’t mean that the OPCON transfer will take place immediately. When South Korea and the US agreed to the principle of a conditional OPCON transfer in their 46th SCM meeting in 2014, they set three conditions: the South Korean military must acquire the key capabilities required for leading a joint defense; it must acquire the ability to make a necessary initial response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats; and the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and the region must be managed in a way that corresponds to the OPCON transfer. The OPCON transfer, therefore, could be hobbled by the assessment of the security environment on the peninsula and in the surrounding region even if the South Korean army meets the military requirements. During their meeting on Monday, Jeong and Shanahan concluded that the inter-Korean military agreement signed on Sept. 19 had helped build confidence and ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and reconfirmed that they will continue to cooperate closely to support the implementation of that deal, known as the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), made between South and North Korea last September. The two leaders also expressed their continued commitment to providing military cooperation for diplomatic efforts to establish peace and achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula following the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi, the Ministry of National Defense reported. By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
