Korea, US to make barter deal

By Kang Seung-woo

Kim Kwan-jin

Korea is expected to allow the United States to deploy missile interceptors on its soil in return for Washington delaying the transfer of wartime operational control of Korean forces to Seoul, experts said Thursday.

The so-called barter deal will be finessed during National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin’s visit to the U.S. Sunday, they said.

The top presidential security officer will meet his U.S. counterpart Susan Rice during his Washington trip.

The U.S. has been prioritizing the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a base here. Defense officials said that they had no objections, saying that it would be for the purpose of protecting U.S. troops.

In return, as requested by Seoul, the U.S. is expected to delay the handover of wartime operational control of Korean troops, scheduled for December 2015.

Kim will likely also visit China and Russia to explain Korea’s stance.

His visit comes ahead of the two allies’ Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington in October where defense chiefs of the two countries are expected to finalize the deal.

“As we strongly hope to put off the OPCON transition amid growing threats from North Korea, there might be a reward for a possible delay,” said Shin In-kyun, president of the Korea Defense Network, hinting the U.S. may link the deployment of THAAD to the transition of OPCON.

Paik Hak-soon, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, said that the give-and-take is already a done deal.

“Since North Korea’s Musudan missile threat emerged last spring, the U.S. has attempted to boost its missile defense in the region, and it linked the missile defense issue to the OPCON transfer through two Korea-U.S summits in May last year and April this year — although there was no official announcement,” Paik said.

He added that the U.S. has nothing to lose in the postponement, as well.

“When the U.S. agreed to the handover in 2009 to reduce the number of its military forces abroad, it did not have to worry about China. But the situation in the region has totally changed, with the U.S. frequently engaged in clashes with China, and it is now trying to strengthen its presence here,” he said.

However, some experts declined to agree on the big deal speculation.

“The biggest issue about which China is concerned is that the X-Band Radar, a part of the THAAD battery, would provide the U.S. detection capabilities extending across much of eastern China,” said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum.

In 2007, Korea and the U.S. agreed that the transition would be carried out on April 17, 2012, before further delaying it after the Navy ship Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo in March 2010.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in October that the OPCON transfer should be conditional, saying, “The two nation will regularly assess and review the security environment on the Korean Peninsula.”