By Lee Tae-hoon
Seoul and Washington will finish drawing up a joint military operation plan for potential small-scale attacks from the communist North Korea by December, senior defense officials said Monday.
“South Korea and the United States will complete and sign a joint military operation plan by the end of the year,” Lt. Gen. Lim Kwan-bin, deputy defense minister for policy, said in a session of the annual parliamentary inspection.
The two allies agreed to revise plans for local provocation shortly after the North unleashed a surprise artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23 last year, killing two South Korean Marines and two civilians.
“We have agreed to refine the ROK-supported U.S.-supporting plans for local provocation in order for the alliance to resolutely respond to further North Korean aggression,” Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) chairman Gen. Han Min-koo and his U.S. counterpart Adm. Mike Mullen said in a joint statement on Dec. 8.
Under the current plans, Seoul has to respond to Pyongyang’s local provocation without assistance from the U.S. forces in Korea.
Should a full-scale war break out on the peninsula, the United States would assume operational command of South Korean forces until transfer of wartime command of the two countries’ allied forces is made in December 2015.
“The two countries share the view that there should be a plan for a joint response for the North’s local provocation in the aftermath of the Yeonpyeong incident,” said JCS spokesman Col. Lee Bung-woo. “Previously, only South Korean forces responded to North Korean provocation.”
In March last year, the North torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan, claiming the lives of 46 sailors aboard, near the inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea, the scene of three bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas since 1999.
A report the Ministry of National Defense submitted to the National Assembly claims that the military will host combined drills between the South Korean and the U.S. Marine Corps to prepare for armed attacks by the North on border islands in the West Sea.
“We will specify different steps to take in response to provocations among different echelons,” the report said. “We will also develop a list of common indications of provocations for South Korea and the United States so that we can better recognize enemy signs.”
Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter potential aggression from the communist North.
During the parliamentary inspection session, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said Seoul and Washington are discussing revisions to their bilateral missile accord to bolster South Korea’s missile capabilities.
Seoul is currently banned from developing or possessing missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers and a payload of over 500 kilograms due to the bilateral pact signed in 1979 and revised once in 2001.
“We’re holding technical negotiations so that the range will cover the entire Korean Peninsula,” Kim said, adding that Seoul is demanding the range to be extended so that a missile from the South could reach any missile base north of the border.
Experts say the range should be increased to more than 700 kilometers to cover most of the North’s major military facilities.