Published: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 05:45:46 +0900

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time?:

It is premature for South Korea to take back operational control of its armed forces during wartime from the United States in six years, given its lack of intelligence capabilities shown in North Korea's recent test firing of missiles, a lawmaker said yesterday.

``It is total nonsense to exercise independent wartime command in five or six years without the U.S. military's intelligence and surveillance backup,'' Rep. Song Young-sun of the main opposition Grand National Party said in a telephone interview with The Korea Times.

``Building up capabilities for gathering intelligence, monitoring enemies and intercepting incoming missiles accurately is a prerequisite to South Korea's independent exercise of wartime command,'' said Song, a member of the National Assembly National Defense Committee.

Seoul and Washington are engaging in talks over the transfer of wartime command. Many military sources expect the timing of wartime command transfer could take place by 2012 after the South's military upgrades its surveillance and weapons systems. South Korea took back the authority to control its military during peacetime in 1994, but wartime control has remained in the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), led by a four-star U.S. general, since the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

If you want it, you are going to have to pay for it, is basically what it is coming down to for South Korea. It was easy for the Korean politicians to demagogue the wartime command issue, but now that Washington has called their bluff and let the South Koreans have it, it is becoming increasingly expensive for South Korea to buy the needed systems to ensure South Korean security that the US military has been providing for them for years.

Tags: korea, army, war time command

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The old saying about being careful what you ask for, you just might get it was never more true. All people who elect their governments need to be wary of politicians who kow tow to populist positions during their campaign. They just may get what they asked for.

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