Majority in S.K. wants wartime control handover: survey

So-called Daechuri America, which was set up by an artist, Park Byeong Su, to show support against a U.S. base's relocation to Daechuri.

A recent survey conducted by Research Plus and commissioned by The Hankyoreh found that more than half of the nation agrees with the transfer of wartime operational command from the U.S. to South Korea. However, the timing of such a handover was still a divisive issue, and a large number of people were concerned with post-command-transfer security issues.

On August 12, 700 people nationwide were asked their opinions on the transfer of wartime operational command. Of those, 52.5 percent answered that the command has to be transferred to Korea, a figure 12.2 percentage points higher than those who believed that the U.S. should keep the command (40.3 percent).

As to the appropriate timing of the transfer, 24.1 percent said ‘as soon as possible before 2009,’ 7.3 percent said ‘in 2009, as the U.S. wants,’ and 23.9 percent said ‘in 2012, as Korea wants.’ 33.5 percent said the transfer should be done ‘after 2012, as late as possible.’

The survey showed that the public held a sharp difference of opinion regarding the reasoning of several ex-ministers of defense who recently came out in opposition to the transfer for security reasons: 48.2 percent disagreed with the ex-ministers, and 46.6 percent agreed. The results can be interpreted to mean that Korea is agonizing between the inevitability of recovering wartime operational command and the possibility of a security risk.

As a matter of fact, 61,3 percent said they were concerned about post-transfer security, especially regarding the possession of a deterrent against North Korea, while only 35.9 percent said there was no security risk in the handover.

A majority 54.8 percent agreed that the transfer of wartime operational command will lead to the breakup of the Korea-U.S. alliance and withdrawal of the U.S. forces in Korea, while 39.8 percent disagreed with this scenario.

On the question of whether approval from the National Assembly is needed for the command transfer, 62.3 percent deemed it necessary, almost double the amount of those who answered that it was not necessary (31.7 percent).

The sampling error of the survey was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, with a 95-percent confidence level.