Seoul halts joint plan for North collapse

In a move that has apparently angered senior U.S. military officers here, the Roh administration has terminated development of a joint U.S. and South Korean military plan that would be implemented in the event of a North Korean collapse.
South Korea’s National Security Council said in a statement yesterday, “We have terminated the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command’s efforts to map out a plan, code named 5029, because the plan could be a serious obstacle to exercising Korea’s sovereignty. We reached the conclusion in January and informed the combined forces command through the Ministry of National Defense.”
Plan 5029 is designed to prepare for sudden changes in North Korea, including a regime collapse. The operation would reportedly include a series of actions to be taken by South Korea and U.S. forces to cope with an exodus of North Korean refugees. In the case of an emergency on the peninsula, the United States has command over both American and South Korean troops.
A senior military official said the National Security Council’s decision angered General Leon LaPorte, the commander of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command, because of Seoul’s apparent refusal to permit U.S. troops to intervene in an emergency prompted by internal changes in North Korea.
Since 1996, Washington and Seoul have been debating the role of U.S. forces in such a scenario. In 2003, the two countries managed to agree, at an annual security consultative meeting, that a separate operational plan would be mapped out to include U.S. intervention to cope with a North Korean collapse, the official said.
U.S. commanders here were reportedly incensed when the plan was called off in January. It was reported to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; he told U.S. defense policymakers to accede to Seoul’s wishes.
At the National Assembly yesterday, South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said, “If necessary, the matter can be discussed again at ministerial-level talks.”
According to defense officials in Seoul, the United States and South Korea were sharply at odds over which country would lead operations. Seoul calls the North unrecovered territory and so believes the South Korean military should lead moves to manage the situation if the communist regime falls. The U. S. position is that North Korea should be managed under the combined forces command or the United Nations .

by Kim Min-seok, Ser Myo-ja