[imText1]President Roh Moo Hyun attended the Graduation and Inauguration at the Military Academy on the 3rd and reiterated that he will carry out the plan to return the wartime operational control through discussions with the US. President Roh has expressed his intention to return the wartime operational control in the New Year’s speech of this year.
“Return of wartime operational control” means that the operational control that the US and ROK military currently have under the ROK-US Combined Forces Command will be entirely handed over to the ROK military.
However, it has been addressed that the agreement on the return of the command will be possible only when the ROK and US reach the point of true intimacy without any conflicts or different opinions on the issue.
Song Dae Sung, Senior Researcher at Sejong Research Institute released an analytic paper on the ‘Handover of Wartime Operational Control: Issues and Solutions’ in「Current Issues and Policy」for March 2006, published by Sejong Research Institute. He stated that it is not the right time to hand over and return the wartime operational control as long as the US and ROK have different opinions and conflicts over the issue.
He emphasized that the handover and return of wartime operational control should be discussed after the relationship between the US and ROK develops into true friendship and alliance.
After Holding Military Power, Decision on Return Can Be Made
Song pointed out that it is not the proper time to discuss the return of wartime operational control, saying that the relationship between the Roh administration and Bush administration can be parallel to that of husband and wife cohabitating without love as they often experience conflicts, rather than a strong and consolidated alliance.
He said, “While couples with no love can argue over rights of possession for a while, it is possible for one party to leave without claiming the right when the parties come to a decision that it is better to part,” and expressed his concern that if the ROK government keeps on requesting the return of wartime operational control, “The US can hand over the operational control thinking, ‘It is all yours. Go ahead and see how unwise it was to ask for the handover’.”
He also pointed out that, “It would be hard to expect the US military to participate in war under the control of the ROK military if the handover happens in such a context.”
He also said, “It is not reasonable to have the stronger military power under command of the weaker power in wartime, and such a situation is unprecedented. The handover needs to take place when the ROK military can be a stronger leading power on the field than US military in the occurrence of war.”
Song also said that the return of operational control needs to be discussed when the citizens have consensus regarding the issue without any internal conflict.
He said, “The discussion has been heated between the Anti American/Pro American, the Anti North Korean/Pro North Korean” and emphasized that the discussion cannot come to a conclusion quickly, unlike that issues such as political reformation. The decision needs to be made after consensus has been reached taking into consideration the implication of the handover of wartime operational control.
