NATO Officials Warn Against Command Shift

Park Geun-hye, former Grand National Party Representative, who is currently on a tour of Europe, relayed on September 26 (local time) the views of NATO core officials on the issue of Korea regaining the wartime operational control (wartime opcon). They said, “If Korea takes back the wartime opcon and the Combined Forces Command (CFC) is dismantled subsequently, the U.S. and Korean troops will get to conduct operations separately when a war breaks out, and this will lead to lower efficiency in responding to an armed aggression against South Korea.”

Park, who arrived in Berlin, the German capital, after wrapping up her visit to Belgium, said, “When I visited NATO headquarters, Patrick Shea, director of Policy Planning, and an aide to the secretary general said so, telling me that they know about the controversies surrounding the issue of regaining the wartime opcon.”

Park said, “NATO officials said, it is not easy to carry out operations separately in peacetime and suddenly cooperate in wartime, citing as an example that during World War Ⅱ, the Allies suffered losses of lives as a result of poor communication with U.S. troops when they conducted military operations in Luxemburg.”

She said, “NATO does not view the collective defense system (underpinned by the wartime opcon) as an infringement on sovereignty and the officials said, the CFC system is a very effective model,” and emphasized, “It is not too late to talk about the (transfer of) the wartime opcon after the U.S. forces’ relocation is completed and the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved.”

She said, “The security issues are globalizing. As was seen in the case of the Taliban of Afghanistan, a problem of one nation spills over to its neighboring countries.” She added, “Under such circumstances, the trust and network between allies are all the more important.”

Park said, “The Soviet Union, the big dragon, disappeared, but there are countless, hardly visible snakes, and this makes us even more unsafe. That’s why the concept of military operations has shifted toward the one about swiftly moving and preventing.” She said, “Even though military strategies change with time, allies should stand steadfastly by each other.”

Former GNP representative Park, who embarked on her first overseas tour after stepped down from the position last June, visited Brussels, Belgium, from September 25 to 26. She laid a wreath on the Korean War veterans memorial and met officials of the EU and the European Parliament to discuss ways to expand trade cooperation between Korea and the EU as well as North Korea’s nuclear and human rights issues.

Park will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first German female chancellor, and former East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière on September 28.

taylor55@donga.com