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S. Korea, U.S. reschedule OPCON transfer to 2015
TORONTO, June 26 (Yonhap) -- 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. Posted by: Steve White 2010-06-27 |
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