South Korea Seeks to Regain Wartime Control of Its Military

South Korea wants to return wartime command of its armed forces to its own military leadership.

Stars and Stripes reported on this.

The United States says the transfer should be based solely on South Korea’s military readiness.

Once the allied forces are placed on the appropriate C-DEFCON alert level, operational command is transferred to the Combined Forces Command, which is led by a U.S. general.

In peacetime, however, South Korea retains full command of its own armed forces.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense has proposed setting a target year for the transfer of wartime operational command before completing the assessment of all required military capabilities.

South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the allies plan to present both countries’ presidents with a roadmap for the transfer by the end of the year. He also stressed that South Korea already possesses the necessary military capabilities, political foundation, and public support to assume wartime command of its own forces in the event of a conflict.

U.S. Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson previously told the U.S. Congress that the allies already have an agreed roadmap, which envisions meeting the conditions for the transfer of wartime operational command by 2029.

The Combined Forces Command was established in 1978, when South Korea – still weakened by the Korean War and limited economic development – lacked the resources to maintain a sufficiently strong military capable of repelling a potential renewed North Korean invasion.

The Combined Forces Command (CFC) was created to ensure unified command of allied forces and improve coordination between U.S. and South Korean military units.

Unlike Japan, where operational control of the country’s military has always remained with the Japanese government and its military leadership since the establishment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, South Korea became far more dependent on the United States because of its precarious security situation following the Korean War.

Militarnyi previously reported that the strength of South Korea’s active-duty armed forces has fallen by 110,000 personnel over the past six years.