Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Minister of National Defense Han Minkoo states his will to switch wartime operational control

“Korean military’s capability is planned to be improved by mid–2020,
considering changes of security circumstances and North Korean threats“

The Minister of National Defense, Han Minkoo, expressed his firm will to switch the wartime operational control(WOC) through a joint news conference and press conference held right after the 46th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) on September 24, Korean time.

During the press conference, the Minister argued that a virtual indefinite postponement of switching WOC was a significantly abrupt interpretation.

He explained that Korea has already agreed to switch the WOC based on conditions with the U.S., and in order to accomplish that, they have plans for improving the Korean military’s capability, and the plans are now in development.

“The Korean military’s capability will be improved by mid-2020 and by then, conditions that Korea and the U.S. have agreed upon will be met, so that we can make the switch of WOC possible. Our will for that is firm and an implementation system that supports this will be prepared by next year’s SCM,” said Minister Han.

He continued, “So far, the goal for switching over the WOC has been set as December 1, 2015, based on the document ‘Strategic Alliance 2015’ (SA 2015), however, considering all the new circumstances such as changes of security situations and North Korean nuclear and missile threats, it will instead be based on conditions. The implementation document that replaces ‘SA 2015’ will be written by next year’s SCM and you will learn the decision of switching WOC from that document.”

He also passed along a request to understand the Ministry of National Defense’s stance, saying that switching over the WOC could be done by mid-2020 since these plans have still been continuing forward.

By Seok-Jong, Lee from Washington < seokjong@dema.mil.kr >
<Copyright ⓒ The Korea Defense Daily, All rights reserved>