South Korea, U.S. boost defense ties

14 Novembre 2013 , Rédigé par ileridefense Publié dans #Asie

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel strengthened the mutual defense ties between their countries when Hagel recently visited Seoul.

Following a renewal of inflammatory threats against both countries from North Korea, Park urged the United States to delay its planned transfer of wartime operational control [OPCON] to South Korea, a move planned for December 2015.

Under a six-decade arrangement, the U.S. would take command of the South Korean military in the event of war in the country. The planned move would transfer control of those forces back to South Korea. Seoul has resisted the OPCON transfer for years.

The South Korean government “wants to put the handover off even longer, for fear of a security vacuum once Combined Forces Command is dismantled,” the respected Chosun Ilbo newspaper commented in an editorial published on Oct. 22.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense announced that a joint U.S.-South Korea task force will study Seoul’s ability to respond to threats from North Korea as officials consider whether to delay the transfer.

“Amidst debates over the OPCON transfer deadline and a rekindled North Korean nuclear threat, Seoul feels vulnerable,” analyst Stephanie Nayoung Kang of the Pacific Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in Asia Times Online.

“President Park made clear during her election campaign last year that maintaining and strengthening South Korea’s close ties with the United States were going to be the foundation of her national security strategy and she has made good on that promise,” Shihoko Goto, an Asian affairs analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., told Asia Pacific Defense Forum [APDF]. “Park has had a very successful first year in office and she made clear in the face of a barrage of threats from North Korea that she would not waver on her country’s fundamental alliance with America.”

It was the second time this year that South Korea had urged a further delay in the OPCON transfer process.

“Four months after the South Korean government asked the U.S. for another delay of the OPCON transfer, the US offered conditional support of the idea and suggested that the two countries discuss the issue again,” Ha Eo-young reported in South Korea’s Hankyorehnewspaper.

Hagel and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin approved negotiations to explore the issue.

“In regard to the timing of the OPCON transfer, South Korea and the U.S. resolved to hold more discussions about when it should happen and work out the conditions. Even so, a clear difference of opinion could be seen between South Korea, which wants to push back the transfer, and the U.S., which is more hesitant on the issue,” Ha wrote.

South Korea relations with North Korea ‘volatile’

Kim made clear that the new wave of North Korean threats had motivated Seoul’s request for an extended U.S. commitment.

“The relationship between North and South Korea is extremely volatile and will become more dangerous,” the Hankyoreh reported him as telling reporters after meeting with Hagel. “We need an assessment that reviews the conditions of our overall security situation and the response capability related to that.”

“Through deliberations between South Korea and the U.S., we will reach an agreement about when the most appropriate time will be for transferring wartime operational control,” Kim said.

The United States continued and expanded support for South Korea is a major component of the Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia.

“In truth, the U.S. supports an increased regional role for South Korea as well in a broader effort to increase burden sharing by its East Asian allies,” Kang wrote in Asia Times Online.

However, writing in the Hankyoreh, Ha cautioned that U.S. policymakers would probably prefer to see the OPCON transfer go ahead on schedule in December 2015.

“The U.S. is not likely to welcome the prospect of delaying the transfer of wartime operational control to South Korea once again,” he wrote.

Nevertheless, Ha acknowledged that the Obama administration was going to review the South Korean request to delay the OPCON transfer as Kim had asked.

Rush to develop new defense systems

A joint statement reiterated the longstanding joint U.S.-South Korean agreement that “South Korea will continue to acquire the key military capability necessary to take a leading role in joint defense.”

Ha wrote that the Park administration is committed to developing its kill chain and Korean Air and Missile Defense [KAMD] systems as quickly as possible. The kill chain system is designed to detect impending missile or nuclear attacks and launch pre-emptive strikes. The system includes surveillance equipment such as satellites and drones as well as attack systems including missiles, fighter jets and warships. Seoul mostly relies on U.S. satellites to gather intelligence.

“The Defense Ministry is planning on pouring 15 trillion won [$14.13 billion USD] into these two projects through 2022,” he reported.

In scale, “These military acquisitions projects are every bit as massive as South Korea’s next-generation jet fighter project,” he pointed out.

At their Oct. 2 meeting, the two defense ministers also confirmed their commitment to developing a U.S.-led missile defense system, the Hankyoreh said.

“The South Korean and U.S. missile defense systems don’t have to be identical as long as they are interoperable,” the newspaper reported Hagel as telling reporters in Seoul.

“The defense agreements also serve notice to critics of the continued U.S. military presence in South Korea that it is good for business in both countries and especially in the U.S. defense industry and high-tech sector,” Ralph Winnie, vice president of the Eurasian Business Coalition in Washington, D.C., told APDF.

Hagel and Kim also signed a new bilateral agreement to jointly deter future threats from Pyongyang.

New strategy: pre-emptive strike

Reuter’s news agency noted that Hagel and Kim did not give any indication of what the ‘tailored deterrence’ strategy might entail. Hagel said the strategy was prompted by North Korea’s push to build and deploy nuclear weapons.

Reuters said the South Korean media had claimed “the new strategy involved the use of all available military assets to launch a pre-emptive strike against the North if there is a clear indication of an imminent nuclear attack by Pyongyang.”

Three weeks after the defense ministers’ meeting, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper ran an editorial with the headline: “S. Korea-U.S. Alliance Cannot Be Allowed to Weaken.”

However, the Chosun Ilbo also cautioned that Seoul needed to take China’s response into consideration before committing to full ballistic missile defense cooperation with the United States.

“Joining would also anger China, which views the program as a threat, and that in turn would only complicate South Korea’s attempts to gain Chinese cooperation in getting North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons,” the newspaper said.

Park has succeeded in her first year in office in developing unprecedented warm relations with China while simultaneously strengthening defense ties with the United States, Goto told APDF.

“This ‘G-2’ policy of balancing the traditional very close ties with the United States with booming economic relations with China has been a signal achievement for Park,” Goto said. “She is riding high on the success of her economic and defense policies.”

Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun negotiated an agreement with Washington to transfer full control of combat forces to Seoul by April 2012. However, Roh’s successor, President Lee Myeong-bak, rescheduled that transfer to the end of 2015. Now, President Park is “seeking another delay, but Washington insists on the agreed date,” the paper said. “Seoul wants another delay in the transfer because North Korea now has nuclear weapons, which fundamentally changes the security landscape on the Korean Peninsula.”

“Operational troop control should only be transferred when there is no doubt that the South can defend itself effectively in a crisis,” the Chosun Ilbo concluded. “There are only two years and two months left before the deadline. … South Korea and the U.S. should remember the strong bond that has held them together for the last 60 years when they approach the issue.”

By Martin Sieff

Asia Pacific Defense Forum

2013.11.08

South Korea, U.S. alliance: South Korea President Park Geun-Hye flanked by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin attend a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. Alliance in Seoul during Hagel’s recent visit. [AFP]

Partager cet article