South Korea and the United States are preparing to carry out exercises to verify if Seoul is ready to take charge of the wartime operational control (OPCON) of Korean forces, which has been run by Washington since the 1950-53 Korean War, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2020) South Korea and the United States are preparing to carry out exercises to verify if Seoul is ready to take charge of the wartime operational control (OPCON) of Korean forces, which has been run by Washington since the 1950-53 Korean War, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"South Korea and the U.S. are closely coordinating to carry out the FOC [Full Operational Capability] assessment test during an upcoming combined exercise with various circumstances, such as COVID-19, taken into consideration," the defense ministry's deputy spokesperson, Col. Moon Hong-sik, said during a briefing, as quoted by the state-run Yonhap news agency.
The 2020 joint military exercises have been indefinitely postponed in light of the ongoing global health crisis.
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo has said that Seoul and Washington have been engaged in preparations to assess the Korean side's readiness to retake wartime OPCON despite the suspension of exercises.
South Korea handed over OPCON to the US-led United Nations command during the intra-Korean war but retook peacetime OPCON in 1994. Since 2007, the allies have been engaged in talks on transferring the wartime command, however, the date for the transfer has been postponed several times.
