U.S. hints at possible delay in OPCON transfer: official

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The United States for the first time has
indicated the possibility of rescheduling the transfer of the wartime command of
South Korean troops in 2012 amid growing concerns over nuclear and missile
threats from North Korea.

The agreement for the transfer was made under former liberal South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun, who sought less dependence on the U.S.
"Within the agreement, there are very clear directions for continued evaluation
of political conditions and an explicit decision before OPCON transfer decision
is made," said a senior administration official, asking anonymity. "So we would
continue to make progress on the things we need to do to transfer the operational
control. But the decision will be made based on how things look in 2012."
The official's remarks were made just hours before Defense Secretary Robert Gates
embarked on a weeklong trip to South Korea, Japan and Slovakia earlier in the
day. While in Seoul for two days until Thursday, Gates will meet with South
Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young for an annual Security Consultative
Meeting.
Concerns have risen in South Korea after North Korea's second nuclear test in May
that the OPCON transfer will create a gap in the joint defense of South Korea.
North Korea is believed to have several nuclear warheads and long-range missiles
capable of reaching part of the U.S.
The U.S. currently maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the
1950-53 Korean War. South Korea got back peacetime control of its forces in 1994.

The remarks are the first hint by a senior U.S. official at a possible delay in
the OPCON transfer.
Other U.S. officials have dismissed a possible postponement, expressing
confidence in the capability of the South Korean military.
The anonymous official also said the planning for the scheduled OPCON transfer
will proceed, calling it "a natural evolution of the alliance," in effect since
the establishment of the South Korean government in 1948.
"We have absolutely no worries that the military conditions and military
capabilities will be there to enable OPCON transfer in 2012," he said. "The OPCON
transfer does not at all reduce our obligations as an ally of Republic of Korea."
The defense official reiterated the U.S. commitment to provide extended
deterrence, a euphemism for nuclear deterrence, to the defense of South Korea and
Japan.
Amid a simmering debate on South Korea's nuclear armament after North Korea's
nuclear test, U.S. President Barack Obama assured "the continuing commitment of
extended deterrence, including the U.S. nuclear umbrella" in the first written
guarantee by any U.S. president after he met with South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak in June.
"It is our intention to take whatever action is necessary to make sure that our
allies are left with absolutely no doubt of our full-throated commitment to their
security in all aspects including extended deterrence," the official said. "We
would hope that would influence them to maintain their current posture and not
necessarily pursue a nuclear option."
The official was addressing concerns that Pyongyang's insistence on going nuclear
might eventually spur Seoul and Tokyo to follow suit.
South Korea's late President Park Chung-hee sought a clandestine project for the
development of nuclear weapons in the 1970s to cope with military threats from
the North as the Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter administrations took steps to
reduce U.S. troops in Korea.
Park's ambitions were thwarted by the U.S., which successfully pressured France
and Canada to refrain from helping South Korea build nuclear reactors capable of
producing weapons-grade uranium.
The nuclear umbrella concept emerged after the U.S. withdrew the entirety of its
nuclear arsenal from South Korea soon after Seoul signed an agreement with
Pyongyang on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula in 1992.
The first North Korean nuclear crisis erupted soon after. At the height of the
crisis in 1994, the North quit the International Atomic Energy Agency.
On the topic of Afghanistan, meanwhile, the official would not elaborate on the
possible deployment of South Korean troops, leaving such a decision entirely to
Seoul.
"The posture on Afghanistan will be a decision for the Republic of Korea," he
said. "We are grateful for the current efforts Korea has in Afghanistan now."
He took note of his recent visit to the hospital and vocational training center
run by South Koreans in the war-torn Central Asian state, saying, "We would hope
that Korea would continue to see their interest to provide aid of whatever form
as appropriate in Afghanistan."
South Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan
in 2007 after dozens of South Korean Christian missionaries were held captive.
Two of them were killed and the rest released after the Seoul government pledged
to withdraw the troops by the end of that year.
South Korea currently maintains scores of medical civilians at a U.S. base in
Afghanistan and plans to increase the number to 85 by year's end.
South Korean Ambassador Han Duck-soo said last week that his government did not
receive "any such request from the U.S. government and we do not expect such a
request will be made in the summit between leaders of the two countries next
month."
Han said that South Korea will make its own decision "regardless of a U.S.
position, taking into consideration the needs there, related circumstances and
our resources available in a comprehensive manner."
Some analysts, however, said Gates may raise the issue in preparation for Obama's
summit with Lee Myung-bak in Seoul in mid-November.
"We do not preclude the possibility of Secretary Gates raising the issue, though
in an unofficial manner," a source said.
Obama will visit Seoul in November on the last leg of a four-nation Asian tour
that also brings him to Tokyo, Singapore and Beijing.
The U.S. president is being pressured by the U.S. military to dispatch 40,000
more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is gaining power, helped
by alleged fraud in the recent election of U.S-backed President Hamid Karzai.
About 68,000 American troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan, which some
fear might turn out to be another quagmire for the U.S. like the Vietnam War.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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