South Korea and the United States agreed Saturday to delay the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul until 2015, given the volatile atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea's continued military provocations, the South's presidential office announced.
Under the fresh deal reached at a summit between President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack Obama, Seoul will regain the OPCON from Washington on Dec. 1, 2015, more than three years later than originally scheduled.
South Korea has peacetime control of its forces, but the United States would take over it in the event of hostilities. In 2007, the allies agreed that the wartime OPCON would be transferred on April 17, 2012. Cheong Wa Dae said Seoul asked for the delay.
"The leaders agreed to reschedule the timing of the OPCON transition to Dec. 1, 2015, in consideration of the changing security condition" after the previous agreement, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release after the Lee-Obama meeting. They are on a trip here to attend a G-20 summit.
North Korea conducted long-range missile and nuclear tests last year. Tensions have mounted further on the peninsula following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. Based on a weeks-long probe assisted by foreign experts, South Korea formally blamed the North for a torpedo attack on the 1,200-ton patrol ship, the Cheonan, near their western border, which killed 46 sailors.
South Korea referred the case to the U.N. Security Council.
Lee and Obama agreed that the Cheonan incident was a clear violation of the U.N. Charter and the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, Cheong Wa Dae said.
"They reaffirmed the need for a stern response," it said as Seoul and Washington struggle to persuade China and Russia to join in condemning the North at the Security Council. The North's allies have been cautious about casting blame on Pyongyang, who denies any involvement in the sinking.
The leaders also agreed to continue efforts to complete a free trade agreement (FTA) at an early date, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
The two sides signed the FTA in 2007, but their legislators have yet to ratify it after a strong backlash from American automakers.
Obama plans to resume talks on the deal and aim for tangible results before his November visit to Seoul for the next G-20 session, U.S. officials said.
