Seoul Not Ready for OPCON Transfer But Wants It Anyway

The OPCON transfer request by the Moon administration has always been a political goal and not a military one, so whether the ROK military is ready or not is mostly irrelevant:

Defense Minister Suh Wook and his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper attend a ceremony to lay flowers at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. / Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense

The latest ministerial defense talks between South Korea and the United States have highlighted that the allies are not on the same page on the planned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul, and defense cost-sharing for American troops stationed here.

The disagreement occurred during the 52nd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, where Defense Minister Suh Wook met with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper. 

South Korea is seeking to regain wartime OPCON of Korean troops from the U.S. by 2022, based on previous agreements that the transition will be made in accordance with the meeting of preconditions, without setting a deadline. To this end, the allies have been utilizing a three-phase verification process of initial operational capability (IOC), full operational capability (FOC) and full mission capability (FMC). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they failed to fully assess the FOC this year. 

“South Korea will make utmost efforts to meet the OPCON preconditions as early as possible and ensure that South Korea-led combined defense posture remains strong and seamless,” Suh said. 

However, Esper stressed the need for South Korea to acquire the capabilities necessary to meet the requirements.

“Fully meeting all the conditions for the transition of operational control to a ROK commander will take time, but the process of doing so will strengthen our alliance,” Esper said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

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Flyingsword
Flyingsword
4 years ago

Commie moon wants opcon in name only. Under new plan CFC remains, just led by a ROK 4 star with the US 4 star as deputy. It is total bs and just a political stunt.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

They ought to say, “Sure; but the new HQ has to be in Mimizuka.” Where they can protect it from irate Korean Virtue-signallers…

Korean Man
4 years ago

South Koreans taking operational control of their own troops, is there something so wrong with that picture? That opens the door for the US to leave, so why is the US all of a sudden reluctant to give control back?

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
4 years ago

We know they’re just going to surrender unconditionally anyway. Fatty’s gonna get a lot of cash and toys when the Confederacy arrives.

rocket man
rocket man
4 years ago

Moon really wants to transfer the wartime powers to the Fatty 3 regiem ASAP.

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