In Focus; Wartime Operations
Command of Korean Military

Controversy flares over President Roh's move to take back wartime operational rights of Korean military from U.S.

Confrontations over a wide-ranging conservative and liberal national issues have been intensifying in recent months amid signs that could turn into violent conflicts at any time, between liberals and conservatives.
Violent demonstrations against the relocation of the U.S. troops headquarters in South Korea from Yongsan, Seoul, to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul, and anti-Korea-U.S. FTA, WTO regulations on mandatory rice imports and President Roh Moo-hyun's moves to take back the wartime operation control of the Korean military from the Combined Armed Forces Command led by the Commander of the U.S. 8th Army stationed in South Korea have all been making blockbuster headlines in the front pages of major dailies and TV stations, taxing the nerves of the public, especially, those of conservatives. Some civilian watchdog groups sent their representatives to Hong Kong and Washington to stage demonstrations raising doubts about their patriotism and who financed their trips.
Demonstrations have taken violent forms that some hardline conservatives claimed that they could see North Korean communist agents lurking behind those events clashing with police forces out to control them with extreme violence severe enough to leave casualties on both sides.
On August 14 and 15, both conservatives and liberals staged demonstrations. Both groups protested Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni war shrine on August 15 in front of the Japanese Embassy near Gwanghwamun boulevard in downtown Seoul but the liberal group made largely of college students also called for the takeover of wartime operational rights for Korean military, the break-up of Korea-U.S. FTA negotiations and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea, among other issues. The conservative protesters including many former army officers demanded the resignation of President Roh for his pro-North Korean policies and called for a delay in taking back the wartime operational rights of Korean military.
As has been feared, the demonstrators engaged in physical confrontations, although no casualties were reported during the pushing and shoving.
Former defense ministers and retired military generals held a meeting August 10 to discuss President Roh's plan and concluded that it was a dangerous move because the Korean military forces lack not only military hardware but also the intelligence gathering apparatus to conduct the war alone, especially when North Korea is ready with highly-sophisticated military hardware such as missiles, which North Korea claims can reach the U.S. mainland, along with crack special army divisions.
They also were afraid that the U.S. may have been so disturbed by such an overt behavior from an ally that it may opt to reduce the level of its troops in the country to a minimum.
They called for a national referendum as well as parliamentary approval on the issue in a signed statement, in light of the grave nature of the issue.
They also joined a street demonstration in the heart of downtown Seoul to bring home their message to the country that the President should delay taking back the command of the Korean military as far as until 2020.
The major opposition Grand National Party was the first one that raised the doubts about the wisdom of South Korea taking over the wartime command of its military 2012 as called for by President Roh. The commander of the Combined Armed Forces Command is the four-star U.S. general who also is commander of U.S, forces Korea including the U.S. Eighth Army.
The opposition GNP's chairman Kang Jae-sup called for a parliamentary hearing with Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-young present at the hearing.
President Roh, in an interview with a local media on August 9, stressed that South Korea is ready to take over the control of its military during wartime any time during 2009 and 2012 as its defense capability has been continuously strengthened. "We can take it over even right now,"he claimed. He said it would not hurt the Korea-U.S. alliance if the timing of take over is done earlier than it has been planned.
Rep. Kim Geun-tae, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, vigorously defended the President's position by saying that the move is right from the stand of Korean nationalistic pride.
The U.S. Defense Department through one of its high-ranking officials told Korean reporters in Washington that the U.S. is ready to turn over the operation right of the Korean military during wartime to the Korean government in 2009. Furthermore, there is further evidence that the U.S. wanted to turn over the right to South Korea as early as 1992, according to reports by the U.S. administration submitted to the U.S. Congress, said the YTN cable news station in Seoul on August 12 quoting its Washington correspondent.
U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alex Vershbow, during a meeting with ruling Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae and floor leader Kim Han-gil at the National Assembly on August 14, told them that the Korea-U.S. alliance will be more balanced and grow stronger in the next 50 years after the return of wartime command of Korean military to South Korea after the lapse of the transitional period.
As if to back up the news report, Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, while visiting Seoul on a leg of his Asian tour, said on August 10 the U.S. is ready to give back the wartime troop operation rights to South Korea as early as possible.
Gen. Burwell Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, said U.S. troops will remain in Korea as long as they are welcomed and wanted in South Korea. "The U.S. is confident in the capability of the ROK military and positively supports the ROK government's desire for independent wartime command,"he said in a message dated August 8.
In reconfirming strong South Korea-U.S. ties, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for the first time attended the memorial service for the Korean War(1950-1953) at the Korean War Monument in Washington on June 25, said in his speech U.S. troops will stay in South Korea as long as they can for peace in Northeast Asia in memory of over 50,000 American soldiers who died during the three-year war on the Korean Peninsula. nw

(clockwise) President Roh Moo-hyun at the White House during his visit to the U.S. in November, last year: the Korean delegation to negotiate the Korea-U.S. FTA; Conservative groups demonstrating for their causes including their objection to the early return of the wartime operational rights of Korean military from U.S. military as planned by President Roh; Liberal groups protesting against the Korea-U.S. FTA; Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi clowning to please U.S. President Bush during their visit to the Elvis Presley Museum in Nashville in the U.S. in June. He visited Yasukuni war shrine on Aug. 15 against warnings of many Asian countries including Korea and China who suffered much damages in both property and human lives in the hands of Japanese military and colonists.