| In his address to the 62nd graduating class of the Korean Military Academy, President Roh Moo-hyun said, “The Korean government will develop the Korea-U.S. alliance further to meet the changing security environment of the future and, at the same time, seek multinational security cooperation.
“We will have talks with the U.S. government about returning operational control [of Korea’s armed forces] in wartime to the Republic of Korea this year,” Roh said yesterday. “If we reach an agreement, I strongly believe that this will pave the way for a more mature security relationship between our two countries.”
These remarks show that Roh’s plan to build the nation’s defensive capability and assume wartime operational control of Korea’s armed forces within the next 10 years has not changed.
Regarding this, Minister of National Defense Yoon Kwang-ung said last month, “Through regular meetings with the U.S. and the Security Policy Initiative, we will draw up a road map for regaining operational control in wartime, which includes exact timeframes and precise procedures, and we will report on this at the ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting which is scheduled for this October.”
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