Seoul objects to quick transfer of defense burdens

A new disagreement surfaced yesterday between Seoul and Washington over the proposed handover of selected military duties from U.S. forces to their Korean allies.
According to a military source, United States Forces Korea, the U.S. military command here, recently told the South Korean Ministry of National Defense that it wanted Korean forces to take over 10 missions that U.S. soldiers have handled here for the past half-century. It proposed that the handovers be completed by 2006. The missions include complete responsibility for guarding the southern half of the Joint Security Area, which the U.S. forces proposed to transfer next June. American military police working under the United Nations flag now have responsibility for that area, an 800-meter-wide enclave that bisects the military demarcation line between the two warring Koreas.
The missions also include counter-battery fire against the North Korean artillery ranged against Seoul and northern South Korea. The United States asked South Korea to take on that fire suppression mission starting in 2005. The United States also asked the South to take over its missions of stopping North Korean special units, sea infiltration efforts. U.S. Apache attack helicopters have been assigned to that role.
The Defense Ministry, though, objected to the timetable, the military source said. The ministry told the U.S. command that it wanted most, but perhaps not all, of those jobs in 2011, when American troops here complete the first phase of their repositioning.
The ministry said officially that nothing has been decided. “We have not reached a decision on what missions to take and when to make the transfer,” a ministry official said. “We will continue discussions with our American partners at a meeting on July 22.”
The concept of mission transfers was first announced in April, but there were no timetables or details given at that time.

by Lee Young-jong