Seoul, Aug. 23 (Yonhap News)
In an unusual move, an alliance of tens of retired officers from South Korea's four military service branches lashed out at their government Wednesday, accusing it of risking national security by alienating the United States.
The veterans, all graduates of South Korea's Army, Navy and Air Force Military Academies, demanded the government of President Roh Moo-hyun stop its plan to regain wartime operational command control of its troops from the U.S.
Citing South Korea's national pride and its enhanced capability to defend itself, the Roh government has proposed to get the wartime command control of its 680,000 troops from the U.S. by 2012. Washington has suggested 2009.
South Korea's conservative groups and supporters have held protest rallies but the Roh government has refused to back down.
About 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"Upon Seoul's regaining of independent wartime control, the combined South Korea-U.S. military alliance will fall apart," the alliance said in a joint statement. "The current government is attempting to fundamentally cripple our national security and economy under the pretext of 'autonomous self-defense.'" Partly because of its new global policy, the U.S. has expressed support for the South Korean move to play a bigger role in its defense but many South Koreans worry that their government's move could lead to the end of a U.S. military presence on their soil.
The issue is likely to be a major topic when South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun meets U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington in mid-September, government officials said.
"Clearly foredoomed is the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from our land," the statement said. "The South Korean government is being deceived by North Korea's malignant ploys to get the U.S. troops out of here."
Lee Jeong-rin, president of the Korea Military Academy Alumni Association, said, "If wartime control is given back to South Korea, the U.S. will be relieved of its responsibility to defend South Korea. Who will then take the responsibility?" "Our military's strength has increased over the last fifty years, but so have the North Korean threats against us," Kim Jae-chang, former deputy commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, said. "This is no time to take back wartime operational control from the U.S."
Concern has risen in South Korea over North Korea's military threats in recent months, especially after the communist country defiantly test-fired seven ballistic missiles, including one believed capable of reaching parts of the United States.
The two Koreas, divided since 1945, are still technically at war, because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not in a peace treaty. North Korea declared last year that it had nuclear weapons.
Retired S. Korean military officers oppose take-over of wartime control |