Influence of Transferring Wartime Operational Control is under Consideration

“We will think over the correlation of transferring Wartime Operational Control with the nuclear experiment with experts, after the announcement of North Korea’s nuclear test,” said President Roh Moo-hyun on October 10.

“We will investigate the influence of new circumstances, but we won’t change our fundamental policy,” replied President Roh to the indication of breaking off transferring control under nuclear experiment during breakfast with the leaders of the five main parties. His utterance seems to imply that the schedule of transferring control or the contents of transferring can be modified in response to North Korea’s nuclear experiment.

“It is true that we have to think over Sunshine Policy toward North Korea considering its abrupt experiment, but we still have to reflect the correlation of the experiment with the policy,” President Roh added.

“A Korea summit can be the last solution in a sense when the six-party talks continue. But I will investigate what can be done thanks to the summit after the nuclear experiment,” answered President Roh unenthusiastically to the questions of necessity for an inter-Korea summit.

Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan expressed his intention of partial participation in PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative) for sanctions against North Korea, as he attended the National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs, and Trade Committee meeting on October 10.

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