By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea has proposed talks to recover wartime operational control of its military from the United States, a step necessary to building a self-reliant defense posture, Chong Wa Dae said Wednesday.

During the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting in Washington, D.C. last month, South Korea’s delegation suggested that the two allies begin full-scale discussions on the issue, presidential spokesman Kim Man-soo said in a briefing.

``However, we’ve yet to receive an official response to our proposal from the U.S.,’’ the spokesman said.

The Defense Ministry confirmed the proposal, saying the issue will be one of the main agenda items at the upcoming defense ministers’ talks between the two countries.

During the 32nd Security Consultative Meeting on Oct. 21 in Seoul, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung will meet his U.S. counterpart Donald H. Rumsfeld to discuss ways of boosting the two allies’ combined war capability and other issues, ministry officials said.

``In fact, the two sides have been conducting a joint study on the issue as one of the agenda for the relations of the South Korea-U.S. combined command since January 2004,’’ said Col. Kim Byung-ki of the ministry.

``South Korea has prepared for the possible talks of wartime command since then. I think, at least, there is a consensus between the two sides that time is ripe to discuss the issue in a sincere manner,’’ he added.

South Korea transferred control of its forces to the U.S.-led United Nations Command in 1950 that helped repel the communist North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Seoul reclaimed its authority to control its armed forces in peacetime in 1994, but the U.S. still retains operational control of the South Korean military in time of war when the defense readiness condition increases to level 3.

Pyongyang has claimed that the U.S. wartime command of South Korean forces is a major stumbling bloc to the peace talks between the two Koreas, calling for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.

The most likely option for the transformation of South Korea-U.S. combined forces structure is the two allies will maintain operational control of their troops during wartime, but conduct joint military operations in case of an emergency, modeled after the U.S.-Japan alliance structure, sources said.

Speaking at the Armed Forces Day ceremony on Oct. 1, President Roh Moo-hyun renewed his call for a change in the current South Korea-U.S. defense arrangements, praising the ministry’s military reform plan focusing on the buildup of an independent defense capability.

Under a 15-year military reform plan, the government plans to cut one-fourth of its 681,000 forces to 500,000 while boosting the modernization of its weaponry.

The U.S. keeps 32,500 forces in South Korea as deterrence against the threats from the North. It plans to reduce its troops to 25,000 by 2008 under Washington’s plan for the realignment of its overseas forces.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr