From ROK Drop:
US & South Korea Officially Delay the Hand Over of Operational Control
» by GI Korea in: US-ROK Alliance
As I have been saying for the past year, the Obama administration would give in on the OPCON transfer to South Korea:
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his American counterpart Barack Obama announced a three-year delay in Washington’s transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul, citing the volatile atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea’s continued military provocations, most recently a deadly naval attack on a warship.
The leaders also agreed to make concrete efforts to revive their long-stalled free trade agreement talks, as Obama set November as the deadline for completing necessary discussions.
Obama began the summit with Lee with a show of his resolve to make North Korea pay a price for sinking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, in March, according to South Korean officials.
“There has to be consequences for such irresponsible behavior,” he told reporters after the meeting just ahead of the opening of a G-20 economic summit here. [Yonhap]
By the way does anyone know what these consequences are?
Rumors on a delay of the hand over of operational control was first reported a year ago as a quid pro quo for President Lee’s decision to deploy ROK Army troops to Iraq. You can read more about my thoughts on this topic here.
Like I have continued to maintain, the hand over of operational control is something I will need to see to believe. Just like I will have to see Yongsan Garrison relocated with my own eyes before I believe it because those of us with long experiences in Korea know about the Korean governmental delay games
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