Hegseth calls S. Korea's push for OPCON transfer 'great,' depicts it as 'combat credible partner'

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a joint press conference with Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Wednesday. EPA-Yonhap

KUALA LUMPUR — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth positively assessed South Korea's push to retake wartime operational control (OPCON) from the United States on Wednesday, calling it a "great" endeavor and underlining his view against a security relationship that "requires only U.S. leadership in contingencies."

Hegseth made the remarks in a press meeting on a plane en route to Malaysia, responding to a question from Yonhap News Agency regarding the effort by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's administration to regain wartime OPCON within its five-year term that ends in 2030.

"I think it's great. The more capabilities of our allies the better. We've been strong allies for many, many decades. That has not changed," the secretary said.

"South Korea's willingness to step up on defense spending is critically important too. They live right next to a real-time and persistent threat, but they also understand the totality of the neighborhood that they are in," he added, apparently referring to North Korean threats facing the South.

The secretary cast South Korea as a "combat credible" partner, while noting the need for allies to take greater security responsibilities.

"I think South Korea is a great example of a combat credible partner who's postured strongly, who has been a great host for our troops, but also wants to and should be increasingly willing to take the lead. It's what we are asking of our partners in Europe to take the lead," he said.

"It doesn't mean we are backing away. It doesn't mean we are not supporting. It is frankly common sense. Why would you want a relationship that requires only U.S. leadership in contingencies when you've got a wealthy, strong, motivated nation capable of doing that?"

The OPCON transfer issue is expected to figure prominently in the discussions that South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and Hegseth plan to have during the allies' annual Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul on Tuesday next week.

Observers said U.S. President Donald Trump's administration could countenance the idea of Seoul taking the lead in wartime scenarios given that it has been calling on allies and partners to undertake a greater security burden for their own defense.

Seoul and Washington have been working on a conditions-based OPCON transition. South Korea handed over its OPCON during the 1950-53 Korean War. It retook its peacetime OPCON in 1994, but wartime OPCON still remains in U.S. hands.

During the press meeting, Hegseth dismissed a recent news report indicating that the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy could set a U.S. defense line that might include Japan, but could exclude South Korea and Taiwan.

"I am not aware of that ... It's not something I am familiar with," he said. "I don't think that report is accurate."

He also clarified that the Trump administration is not seeking to forge a multilateral alliance system in the Indo-Pacific, akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Pentagon officials have recently noted the need for Asian allies to contribute more to "collective defense" in the Indo-Pacific, sparking speculation that the U.S. might seek a multilateral security alliance in the region, as collective defense is a term used to refer to a multilateral alliance like NATO.

"We are working through bilateral, trilateral relationships, whether it's a mutual interest between the two countries, and it could be multiple countries as well," he said. "But we are not looking to create a formal broad alliance. Just a recognition that there there's mutual interest and they overlap, (we) work together, which I think makes a lot of sense."

The secretary also dismissed as "mischaracterization" reports that the draft of the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy prioritizes defending the U.S. homeland and the Western Hemisphere in a shift away from or a weakening of its focus on countering threats from China.

"A shift away would be the wrong characterization, and I don't want to get ahead of the national security strategy, and we haven't released it yet, but just because you recognize the need to focus on our own hemisphere does not mean we're distracted from the pacing threat and the reality of what deterring China really means," he said.

He added that "getting a hold of" the U.S. border and of its own hemisphere means "a lot of assets that maybe have been far-flung around the world could be a little closer to home."

"But it doesn't change how our building calibrates our pacing threat and the seriousness with which we take it. So, I look forward to rolling it out so that some of the mischaracterizations are addressed."

Hegseth is on his Asia trip that includes stops in Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea.