U.S. said to be willing to return wartime command by 2010

Posted on : 2006-08-02 12:04 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
South balks at proposal, citing needed preparations
 South Chungcheong Province on July 28.
South Chungcheong Province on July 28.

Controversy over whether the U.S. would reserve military control over South Korean troops during wartime has taken a new turn. In a round of meetings for the South Korea-U.S. Security Policy Initiative (SPI) consultation on July 13-14, the U.S. expressed willingness that it could return the right to wartime military control to South Korea before 2010, earlier than was expected by the South Korean government.

As the fact was reported, a high-ranking official of the South Korean Defense Ministry, asking not to be named, said on July 20, "Our military may have difficulty independently exercising wartime military command before 2010," seeming to refute the U.S. offer.

The high-ranking South Korean defense ministry official said that if South Korea were to "independently exercise wartime military command, all factors, including software, hardware, capability, and preparations must be considered." The official's remark seems an acknowledgement of an insufficient capability by the South Korean military. South Korean military authorities said that wartime military control could feasibly be returned in 2011, when a mid-term defense plan is completed.

A core part of the preparations for the possible return of wartime military control lies on whether the South Korean military has enough intelligence-gathering capability. North Korea's missile tests on July 5 were a good opportunity to check this ability. The South Korean military was believed to know about the North's missile test date three days before the firing, by wiretapping the North Korean military's radio message that bans sailing on the East Sea. That knowledge partly proved the South Korean military's intelligence capability.

However, the South Korean military has big holes in gathering and analyzing intelligence data, given the facts that the chief of the National Intelligence Service left for overseas visits before the missile launches and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff canceled his overseas visit plans on the day of the missile tests, a military source said.

Military authorities said an exchange of intelligence information was smooth via the combined forces of Korea-U.S. troops, but questions are raised whether the two sides share a final decision on the interpretation of the data.

In terms of intelligence and surveillance equipment, officials said the South Korean military is heavily dependent on the U.S. Between 2007 and 2011, the defense ministry plan to spend several trillions of won to acquire equipment such as early warning planes and a multipurpose intelligence satellite. If the mid-term plan is completed, it will lay the groundwork for South Korea to gain wartime military command, according to the defense ministry. However, the proposed timeframe may be delayed, as a significant number of the projects will be implemented in the latter part of the five-year preparatory period.

The South Korean military's comprehensive capability in case of war can be gauged by whether it has its own command and control capability.

To protect from attacks by external forces, the most important thing is to secure capability of making long-range precision attacks. To raise its air force, the military will complete the purchase of 40 F-15K fighters by 2008 and plans to buy an additional 20 similar fighters beginning in 2009. The Navy will be equipped with a 7,000-ton-class Aegis destroyer in 2008 and nine 1,800-ton-class submarines by 2010. During this period, the construction of a 3,000-ton-class submarine equipped with Cruise missiles will begin.

South Korea's defense system against North Korea's 170-millimeter self-propelled artillery and 240-millimeter cannons, positioned in the Demilitarized Zone, is estimated to be well equipped, with multiple rocket launchers and Hyunmu missiles ready.

However, overall, the South Korean military has insufficient capability of exercising independent wartime military command. In a July 22 interview with the Stars and Stripes, General Burwell B. Bell, commander of U.S. troops in South Korea, said, "For South Korea to have [wartime] military command, the biggest issue [of returning wartime control] is that South Korea and the U.S. must have their own independent wartime command and control capability."

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