By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Eighth U.S. Army (EUSA) will bolster its war-fighting role and missions to help ensure the security on the Korean Peninsula, even after South Korea takes over wartime operational control of its troops in 2012, a defense ministry spokesman said Thursday.
Whether or not to move the EUSA headquarters in Seoul to other regions, including Hawaii where the U.S. Pacific Command is located, however, has not yet been decided, said Jeon Jei-guk, deputy minister for policy at the Ministry of National Defense.
Discussions are still under way between the two militaries, Jeon told reporters.
``The envisaged changes in the roles and missions of the Eighth Army is part of the U.S. military's broad troop realignment plan, so that is not directly related to Seoul's exercise of independent wartime operational control or U.S. military strategic flexibility,'' Jeon said. ``But I understand the Eighth Army is moving to reinforce its war-fighting capabilities.
Jeon said the EUSA, whose missions are currently limited to administrative or personnel affairs, will have the C4I command-and-control as well as intelligence and combat operations capabilities.
Established in 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee, the EUSA became the spearhead for the United Nations Command (UNC) to halt aggression by North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, and ultimately assumed overall responsibility for conducting ground operations on the peninsula under the command of a four-star American general.
But the army command's roles and missions have been significantly reduced since the establishment of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) in 1978.
Since then, a three-star general has taken charge of the EUSA, while the CFC has been headed by a four-star general who concurrently serves as chief of the UNC and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Currently, the EUSA has the role of providing forces to the CFC commander and undertaking combat support operations, such as the reception, staging, onward movement and integration missions, in the event of an emergency.
Changes in the roles and missions of the command have been the subject of consultations after Seoul and Washington agreed on command rearrangement plans last year. Under the agreement, the two militaries are to run separate theater war-fighting commands from April 17, 2012, after disbanding the CFC.
The Korean military will take the lead in wartime combat operations with the U.S. military shifting to a naval- and air-centric supporting role.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates also hinted at the potential transformation of the army.
``As we go through the transformation of the Eighth Army, there will clearly be fluctuations in personnel and units,'' Gates told a news conference in Seoul Tuesday after talks with his South Korean counterpart Lee Sang-hee. ``But we will keep our commitments made at Camp David and will ensure that we maintain at least the same capabilities that we have here and perhaps be able to enhance them.''
About 27,000 U.S. troops are stationed here as a deterrent against North Korea, which conducted its first-ever nuclear test in 2006.