[USFK Forums] Roadmap on Wartime Command Transfer to Be Finalized This Year [KT]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Roadmap on Wartime Command Transfer to Be Finalized This Year

The Korea Times, Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By Park Song-wu, Yoon Won-sup, Staff Reporters

Alexander Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said on Tuesday that it will be ``fine’’ for the two allies to work out a roadmap for the transfer of wartime command by the end of this year.

The U.S.-led U.N. command took over control of the South Korean forces when the Korean War broke out in 1950. The wartime command did not return to Seoul as the war ended in 1953 with a cease-fire.

In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at his embassy in Seoul, Vershbow, however, said that it would take years for both sides to implement the transfer process.

``If we can work out the roadmap this year, that would be fine,’’ he said. ``But I think the actual implementation of the roadmap may extend over many years and I think that is understood by the Korean side.’’

It was the first interview Vershbow has given with a South Korean newspaper on current affairs since he took office in Seoul on Oct. 17 last year.

President Roh Moo-hyun said in his New Year’s news conference on Jan. 25 that Seoul would try to conclude the discussions on the transfer of wartime command by the end of this year.

But Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, reacted to Roh’s statement a day later that ``determination has to be made in terms of capabilities.''

Vershbow said that such discord between the two allies is a ``natural process’’ that goes hand in hand with the shifting of greater responsibility in the alliance to South Korea’s own armed forces.

``As you know, several missions have been transferred from the United States to (South) Korea,’’ he said. ``It’s only natural that the command relationship over time would evolve in the same way.’’

South Korea was granted peacetime control of its military in 1994. ``So we are ready to work out a roadmap for this process that should take into account both the overall security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and the overall capabilities of the different partners,’’ Vershbow said.

The two countries plan to launch separate task forces responsible for studying the issue in an in-depth manner next month.

About 32,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, but the forces are set to decline to about 24,500 in coming years as part of a worldwide realignment by the Pentagon.

As for South Korea’s reluctance in fully endorsing the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Vershbow said that the United States understands it, given the geopolitical situation of the divided peninsula.

The initiative aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems and related materials to and from what the U.S. calls ``rogue states,'' such as Iran and North Korea.

``We understand Korean sensitivities,’’ he said, ``but we are pleased by recent indications of an interest in observing a few PSI exercises and possibly cooperating informally on individual activities.’’

Instead of fully joining the PSI, launched in May 2003, South Korea will dispatch observers to an exercise in interdicting suspicious arms shipments, which will be conducted in Australia on April 5.

``I think Korean thinking is still evolving but we have no doubt that Korea is a strong proponent of steps to prevent proliferation and that’s what is important,’’ Vershbow said.

Upon a South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), he said that the two sides are in the ``very final stages’’ of consultations to launch the necessary negotiations. But he said that it is not quite ready to make any announcement on it.

``I think there are some internal processes that still have to run their course on the Korean side,’’ he said. ``It is still too soon to predict when these negotiations will start but we are very hopeful that later this year we will get down to work on an agreement that will benefit both nations.’’

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr
im@koreatimes.co.kr

01-31-2006 22:46

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