By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea has taken over about 65 percent of elements from the U.S. military for the independent operational control of its forces during wartime, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday.

JCS officials made public the progress during a meeting with retired military chiefs at JCS headquarters in Seoul. About 70 former generals led by Paik Sun-yup, former JCS chairman, attended the meeting, the officials said.

A JCS official said the two independent theaters commands for South Korea and the United States would be able to begin initial operations in 2011 before the official transition of wartime command in April 2012.

``Except for the C4I digital command-control system involving many technical issues for the transition, other elements have been transferred from the U.S. to the Republic of Korea as scheduled,'' the official said, asking not to be named.

Seoul and Washington agreed in 2007 that Korean commanders would execute independent operational control of their troops during wartime, with the U.S. military shifting to an air- and naval-centric supporting role.

The two governments plan to set up their own theater commands after disbanding the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC).

South Korea voluntarily handed over both peacetime and wartime operational controls to the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. The command authority was later transferred to the CFC. Korea took over peacetime control in 1994.

Conservative forces regard the command changes as a U.S. move to reduce its security commitment to South Korea. They argue the smaller role of the U.S. military amid lingering threats posed by North Korea could tip the military balance on the Korean Peninsula.

Many defense experts say the South Korean military will not be able to establish an independent defense posture based on its own intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets until 2012.

U.S. officials, however, say the five-year transition framework is enough to prepare a new command structure, citing the possible provision of ``bridging capabilities'' for ISR assets.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr