South Korea Accelerates Push to Regain Wartime Troop Control from US

Ahn made the remarks during a meeting with about 170 key defence ministry officials, military chiefs and related officials to review progress on the OPCON transfer push, Yonhap News Agency reported.

South Korea seeks to retake OPCON, currently held by the United States, on a conditional basis within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term ending in 2030.

"The year 2026 should mark the starting year for restoration of wartime operational control," Ahn said. "Through the OPCON transfer, our military will be equipped with an ever stronger military readiness posture based on six component commands, leading a powerful South Korea-US alliance that is unprecedented in world history."

The ministry plans to draw up a roadmap for the OPCON transfer by April, followed by verification of Seoul's Full Operational Capability (FOC) by October, before ultimately selecting the timing for the actual transfer, according to Ahn and his ministry.

Seoul seeks to determine the transfer timing after the defence ministers of South Korea and the US finally approve the verification of the FOC at their next Security Consultative Meeting in October.

FOC refers to the second part of a three-stage program to assess Seoul's capabilities to lead the allies' combined forces for the retaking of wartime control. Seoul is currently in the second phase of the assessment required for the transfer.

The defence ministry said it will hold the OPCON transfer progress assessment meeting every quarter this year, up from once a year previously, in a bid to complete the FOC verification process within this year as planned.

On January 20, South Korea's defence ministry said a special advisory committee tasked with reforming the military has called for establishing a joint operations command as South Korea pushes for a handover of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington.

The recommendation by the committee, comprising civilian, government and military officials, comes as South Korea seeks to achieve the conditions-based OPCON handover from Washington within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term ending in 2030.

"(The committee) suggested establishing a joint operations command for unifying the command structure and enhancing the completion of wartime and peacetime operational command," the ministry said in a release.

Under the plan, the envisioned command is expected to spearhead the military's operational function currently led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The JCS will instead focus on other roles, such as establishing military strategy, building military power and dispatching military units for overseas deployment.

As part of the structural reform, the military was also advised to redefine the role and mission of the Strategic Command to ensure its strategic autonomy and underscored the need for launching a space command to respond to changes in the space security landscape and future warfare trends.

The Drone Operations Command was advised to be scrapped in consideration of overlapping features with respective functions within military branches, according to the ministry.

- IANS