South Korea confirms plan for OPCON transfer from US within Lee's 5-year term

Seoul, Sep 16 (IANS) The South Korean government on Tuesday confirmed the transfer of wartime Operational Command (OPCON) to Seoul from Washington as a policy task for South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term.

The plan was among a set of 123 major policies confirmed by a Cabinet meeting presided over by Lee earlier in the day, about a month after a presidential committee proposed a policy roadmap for the new government.

"(The government) aims to seek wartime OPCON transfer within (Lee's) term, based on a steadfast South Korea-US alliance, to secure at an early date the South Korean military's capabilities to lead combined defence during both peacetime and wartime," the government said, Yonhap News Agency reported.

To achieve such a plan, the government said it plans to swiftly draw up a roadmap for a "conditions-based" OPCON transfer and bolster the military's core capabilities.

South Korea handed over operational control of its troops to the US-led UN Command during the 1950-53 Korean War. Control was then transferred to the two allies' Combined Forces Command when the command was launched in 1978. While South Korea retook peacetime OPCON in 1994, wartime OPCON still remains in US hands.

Since then, the transition has been a pending issue between the allies, with previous administrations making efforts to complete OPCON transfer but facing delays due to changes in the security environment, notably North Korea's military threats.

The OPCON transfer was supposed to occur in 2015 but was postponed, as the allies agreed in 2014 to a conditions-based handover -- rather than a timeline-based one -- due to Pyongyang's advancing nuclear and missile threats.

The current conditions-based OPCON transfer the allies have been working on includes Seoul's capabilities to lead combined Korea-US forces, its strike and air defence capabilities, and a regional security environment conducive to such a handover.

In a three-stage program to verify whether the conditions have been met, the allies conducted the initial operational capability test in 2019 but have yet to complete the full operational capability test, the second stage in the process. The full mission capability test is the final phase of the verification program.

But in the face of North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats, likely emboldened by the North's deepening military alignment with Russia, and changing security dynamics in the region, it remains to be seen whether conditions, such as a "conducive" regional security environment, can be met by 2030.

Also among the defence policy tasks confirmed Tuesday were transferring the functions of the Defence Counterintelligence Command and eventually scrapping the organization that played a key role in ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid.

The government also aims to advance its three-axis deterrence system against North Korean threats and push for a phased establishment of a space strategy command.

--IANS

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