[Editorial] Moon administration should complete OPCON transfer during term

Posted on : 2017-05-27 17:20 KST Modified on : 2017-05-27 17:20 KST
President Moon Jae-in moves to the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters after leaving a meeting at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul
President Moon Jae-in moves to the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters after leaving a meeting at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul

The Ministry of National Defense reportedly notified President Moon Jae-in’s governance planning advisory committee that it plans to move the date of the wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer from the US up to the early 2020s. The new date would fall during Moon’s term as President, which ends in 2022. Achieving the OPCON transfer during his term was one of Moon’s pledges as a candidate. While the ministry’s about-face from its past opposition to the transfer just because a new administration is in office does leave something of an unpleasant aftertaste, there’s also the feeling that we missed an opportunity to finish the transfer some time ago.

Even taking the fact of the divided Korean peninsula into account, it makes no sense for a sovereign state to entrust control to another country in a wartime situation where its own citizens’ lives are on the line. Putting the US in command in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula means US global strategy will take precedence, while South Korea’s interests become secondary. Pushing back the date of the OPCON transfer also robs South Korea’s military of the opportunity to build its own operational capabilities. The state of the military right now - the way it seems to want to rely on the US not only for hardware (weapons) but also for software (operations) in a wartime scenario - is a product of that.

Historically, the decision was already made at South Korea-US defense minister talks during the Roh Moo-hyun administration (2003-08) in Feb. 2007 to have the transfer of OPCON - currently in the hands of the Combined Forces Command (US Forces Korea Command) - happen in Apr. 2012. According to a 2007-2011 midterm national defense plan to achieve this goal, efforts to establish intelligence, reconnaissance, and monitoring capabilities, establish a C41 (command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence) system, acquire precision-guided munitions (PGM), restructure the military, and set up a ground operations command were all supposed to be finished by 2011. But the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008-13) opted to scratch this plan, citing the financial crisis taking place at the time. Instead, the OPCON transfer was put off until Dec. 2015, when the next administration would be in office, and Lee proceeded to invest huge sums in his Four Major Rivers Project. His successor Park Geun-hye’s administration (2013-16) similarly put off the move in 2014, with the transfer date one year away. This time, the postponement was for all intents and purposes indefinite: instead of nailing down a date, the administration made the transfer contingent on vague “improvements in the Korean Peninsula security situation and stronger North Korea deterrence capabilities for the South Korean military.” It was enough to make us wonder whether Seoul had any commitment to defending itself.

The situation now looks to be one where the South Korean military still has a long way to go to get back the OPCON it would already have now had we followed the original schedule. But the OPCON transfer decision isn’t one South Korea can make on its own. South Korea and the US are going to need to reach a new agreement and submit the current OPCON conditions to renewed discussion. We’re going to need to beef up our military’s strength; in political and social terms, we’re going to need to assuage fears among conservatives and within the military itself. At the same time, we’re also ultimately going to have to relax tensions on the Korean Peninsula by improving relations with the North.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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