U.S. Realigning Armed Forces in Korea

The Eighth U.S. Army (EUSA) Command stationed in Korea will be deactivated by 2008. This signals Washington’s intention to undergo major restructuring of the U.S. forces in Korea before transferring wartime command control to Korea.

General BB Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK), also implied at a press conference on Friday in downtown Seoul that the EUSA Command may be dismantled. “This is part of the U.S. army’s troop realignment scheme and is irrelevant to the transfer of wartime command control,” stated an official of the Ministry of Defense.

However, the deactivation of military command is obviously both directly and indirectly linked to the issue of wartime command transfer. Most military experts believe that Bell’s comment indicates Washington’s intention to accelerate its military realignment independently of Korea’s “2012 transfer plan.”

According to the USFK, the EUSA Command is certain to be transformed into headquarters of a Unit of Employment-Y (UEY) by 2008 in line with the Global Defense Posture Review (GPR) and the U.S. army realignment plan. As the U.S.’s plan for the transfer of wartime command control is closely connected to the GPR, the deactivation of the EUSA Command cannot be separable from the command transfer.

The U.S. is in the process of restructuring its military to transform all the U.S. units into agile forces equipped with high-tech weapons. Six U.S. army commands, including the EUSA Command, will be transformed into a UEY.

A UEY will assume operational responsibility on a bigger area than the existing U.S. military commands. If the EUSA Command is transformed into a UEY in Hawaii, it will take operational responsibility of other regions in Northeast Asia as well. The operational command of the EUSA has been limited to the Korean peninsular since the Korean War.

Rumors over the deactivation of the EUSA Command were prevalent since the U.S. Army’s Second Infantry Division transformed into a Unit of Employment-X (UEX). The UEX symbolizes strategic flexibility of the U.S. forces as it has five to six brigade-size power and can increase its troops in case of a war.

With the transformation of the Second Infantry Division into a UEX equipped with air power, many of the back-up units of the Eighth U.S. Army were absorbed by the Second Division, leaving the EUSA Command to be left with only a few hundred personnel.

Bell also pointed out during the press conference that the EUSA Command is no longer a headquarters for wartime command.

The EUSA Command will disappear by 2008, and the command system of the USFK is anticipated to undergo a dramatic change once the transfer of wartime operation control takes place in 2008.

Above all, analysts believe that the command system of the USFK will be noticeably simplified and transform into the U.S. Joint Forces Headquarters in Korea (USJFT-K). In addition, the Second Army Command, which has been under operational control of the EUSA Command, is likely to end up directly under the operational control of the USJFT-K.

Some believe that when the USJFT-K is established, the EUSA Command will come under the restructured UEY to assume tasks exclusively for deploying and locating reinforced troops in case of a war in the Korean peninsular.

“It has not yet been decided whether the EUSA Command will stay as a separate entity after transforming into the UEY or if it will become a subordinate unit of the USJFT-K,” a military official said. “Regardless of the transformation of the EUSA Command, its subordinate intelligence units and patriot missile units will continue to remain in Korea.”

If Korea gains wartime command control from the U.S., the U.S. forces will focus on supporting Korea with the Air Force and Navy. In addition, the U.S. Seventh Air Force Command is anticipated to be transformed into the Air Force Korea War Fighting Headquarters (AFKOR WFHQ) by 2009, equipped with high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) like Predators or Global Hawks.

ysh1005@donga.com