S. Korea’s Lee seeks early return of wartime control from US as North slams Seoul ‘provocations’
- South Korea should ‘promptly regain’ OPCON to ‘secure the most basic condition as a country,’ says President Lee Jae Myung
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- South Korea should ‘promptly regain’ OPCON to ‘secure the most basic condition as a country,’ says President Lee Jae Myung
By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ISTANBUL (AA) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday called for an early return of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops from the US, as North Korea again slammed what it called “provocations” by Seoul along the dividing line on the Korean Peninsula.
“I think having the OPCON entrusted to another country and relying on it cannot be left as it is,” Lee told reporters at the presidential office.
His remarks came as Lee marked his 500th day in office since being elected in June last year, Yonhap News reported.
“Speaking frankly, OPCON must be returned at an early date. (We) are sufficiently capable of doing so, and (related) talks between South Korea and the US are basically going well in that direction,” he said.
Lee’s push for the return of OPCON comes even after US Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson said last week that “conditions” for the wartime operational control transfer have “changed,” calling for “new standards” for such a process to take place.
Some 39,000 American troops are deployed on the southern side of the Korean Peninsula under a defense pact between Washington and Seoul dating back to the inter-Korean war of the 1950s.
“Military sovereignty may constitute a core pillar of national sovereignty. I think South Korea should promptly regain (OPCON) to secure the most basic condition as a country,” Lee stressed.
His remarks came as tensions between the divided Koreas escalated following a Sept. 21 land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously.
Seoul has blamed North Korean land mines, while Pyongyang denied any involvement.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said Monday that the situation at the southern border “is very unstable.”
“The warmongers of the ROK (South Korean) military are seriously threatening the safety of our service personnel by firing warning shots at them with automatic rifles and large-caliber machine guns,” she said in a statement carried by KCNA.
“Such provocations began in August, alongside warning loudspeaker blaring. They committed 2870 rounds of provocative loudspeaker warning and 201 warning shot provocations from August 1 to October 17,” Kim said.
She claimed such “enemy provocations, more openly perpetrated in the wake of a fabricated ‘mine explosion farce’, have gone beyond the red line.”
Warning that Seoul will “surely regret and face uncontrollably terrible danger, for such useless bravery of the military gangsters,” Kim said: “we do not say empty words about the protection of our sovereignty.”
Riyaz Khaliq Khaliq