The Chosun has an interesting piece on how five leading candidates for president feel about Roh’s wartime control policy:
The Chosun Ilbo asked five presidential hopefuls, “If the bilateral Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in October agrees that Seoul will exercise sole wartime operational control, what would you do about it if you become president?” They were Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae, former Grand National Party chairwoman Park Geun-hye, former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak, former Gyeonggi Province governor Sohn Hak-kyu, and former prime minister Goh Kun. Former Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young, another aspirant, is on an overseas trip and could not be reached.
Except for the Uri Party chairman, all said they would “re-examine” the issue, but with different caveats
Kim liked the idea while the others basically gave a nonanswer along the lines of “I will take another look at it if it somehow hurts the alliance or Korean security.”
Call me a dirty commie, but I’m with Kim on this one. Korea is a big country and should be able to play with its own troops during a war. This also makes sense in the context of the American pullback to Pyeongtek. In a future war, it would be the Koreans doing the bulk of the fighting (the plan calls for around 600,000 American troops to join them but I expect that the issue would be decided long before most of them could get here) so it is only natural that they control their forces. That would leave the US to do what it does best; logistics and air support.
I may not like Roh’s motivations for seeking a less integrated alliance with the US, but I think this is a change for the best.
15 Comments
This is the best solution for the U.S. military, which is why we’re trying to accelerate the process. Like the World Bank pres said, some of these countries think of U.S. forces as their own. And where would those 600,000 reinforcing troops come from? Another universe? The Sunshine Kids won’t have Butch Cassidy to save the day.
Yes, wouldn’t it be nice to see how this all works. Let’s picture it:
artillery tubes blazing before the first rays of the sun have made it over Sorak Moutain. After weeks of a South Korean administration swearing greatly war was unthinkable, with under tones that it is just more neo-con war hawking by Washington, high explosive shells begin raining down around Kyobo bookstore.
Never fear! The Korean military establishment, which has had to begrudgingly beg the Blue House for any prepatory mobilization authorizations, because the adminstration did not want to make a tense situation worse by angering Pyongyang with American-style war hawking, snaps into action with the full, well, hopefully full, backing of the South Korean masses as well as a government that decides, as it’s running to the bomb shelters, which most South Korean citizens don’t have, that they will have to fight back.
But, the South Korean military, now that it is not hamstrung by the politicians since war has actually begun, only has to play catch up as it reels under the initial barrage.
Thankfully, they should have time to play catch up, because the North doesn’t have the resources to provide stamina. Even being handicapped before the shooting starts shouldn’t change the balance of power. The South’s generals have confidence.
Then the chemical and biological weapons start to take effect. Key military and population areas are hit not too long after the first shoots are fired by WMDs used for strategic military purposes as well as creating chaos.
How is the South Korean war machine going to respond?
The US doesn’t have to worry. It’s South Korea’s show. We’re just providing logical support.
The White House can explain that at the press conference after the first images of US bases being hit by North Korean rockets tipped with chemical and/or biological agents.
“My fellow Americans, you see, the war will be over soon. South Korea’s military is capable of handling this. We’re in a supporting role. It’s Seoul’s show….”
Or, “My fellow Americans, you see, screw Seoul. We told them this was coming for the past several weeks/months. They wouldn’t listen. Now their reeling from the onslaught of ultimate warfare they said Pyonyang would never unleash on fellow Koreans. Fuck Seoul. We’ll handle this ourselves. Within days, we’ll by pass the South Korean military and do an end run taking the war directly to North Korea.”
Or, “My fellow Americans, you see, the unprecedented attacks by Pyongyang have welded together the resovle of the two allies - South Korea and the United States. As we speak, the President X of South Korea is signing orders to create a unified command to deal most effectively with the dastardly WMD attacks of the North. Within weeks…..”
Do not leave American troops in South Korea under split command.
If the North begins to collapse and decides to lash out, it will use almost everything in its arsenal, and who in their right mind wants to see US troops sitting in Pyongtaek under a SK military led effort to deal with that?
“We’re just providing logical support.” —- logistical support, idiot…
I think they’re in even more need of the logical support.
Britain and Germany are even bigger countries, and yet for some reason they have no problems as NATO members handing over wartime control to the United States. Have you considered that they just might know what they’re doing a little better than the current Korean government?
The idea of the United States just sticking to providing logistical support, while an all-out war rages right next door to one of its most important allies as well as a past and potential future enemy, is militarily nonsensical. Even if Korean troops do most of the ground fighting, there is absolutely no question that US troops will be sucked in as well: combine that with the fact that America has far better intelligence on what the DPRK is up to than the South Koreans do, and it becomes clear as glass why the US must stay in charge.
To hand over wartime control of a military theater to a party with far inferior intelligence-gathering capabilities while nevertheless committing American troops is sheer madness, and what this handover really means underneath all the verbiage is a dissolution of the Korean-American alliance. Considering that over the last 50 years this very same alliance has been the only thing securing South Korea’s independence from the three giants it calls neighbors, I don’t see how any sober individual can call this a good thing.
That guy up there from the UK hit the mark. Too bad most Koreans don’t know this. I blame the Korean media for their useless rhetoric that is bringing South Korea down in flames.
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I wish they debate the need for mandatory military service instead. Hopefully many of the Korean males slated for military service could be used to patch up the shitty sidewalks in Seoul instead of playing soldier for a couple years.
Without fail, every single day I seek a Korean lady break a heel on her shoes because of the uneven, or often completely cracked sidewalks. It’s got to suck to spend the rest of the day with a limp.
–Remort
“Too bad most Koreans don’t know this. I blame the Korean media for their useless rhetoric that is bringing South Korea down in flames.”
Most Koreans don’t know this? I suggest you at least read what’s being said in the Korean media before you write your own rhetoric.
What’s being said in the Korean media is that “Korea is the only country in the world without operational control over its military in wartime”. As the poster pointed out, that is an obvious lie, as European NATO members are in a similar situation.
This is extremely irresponsible reporting and editorializing by the Korean press.
“European NATO members are in a similar situation.”
You wouldn’t happen to have read about that in Kim Dae Joong’s editorial in the Chosun.com, did you? Naw.
Christ, Chosun.com has been carrying this story everyday for the last few months. And it’s even in English. The last time I’ve checked, papers like Chosun, Joongang, and Dongah are also part of the Korean media.
Well, I can easily give you a link to a media report (from the Segye Ilbo) where the claim that this is a situation unique to Korea is made. http://news.naver.com/news/rea.....enu_id=102
You wouldn’t happen to have read that in Canada, would you? Naw.
Christ, the Korean media has been carrying this sort of inaccurate reporting everyday for the last few months. It’s even in Korean.
I guess you didn’t get my point dogberrt. Naver or Hankyoreh or whatever the leftwing paper you quote doesn’t make it an entire mouth piece on this issue, just as George Bush doesn’t represent all of America. You can find articles like that, but I can find article like this too.
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....10020.html