Apparently President Roh thinks that the US should not be in command of ROK Army forces if war should break out on the Korean peninsula.

Roh further appealed to a long-standing South Korean irritation, which is U.S. command of South Korean forces in combat. “Within 10 years,” he said, “we should be able to develop our military into one with full command of operations.” That would include, he said, “the capability for planning independent operations.”

The newspaper said Seoul and Washington had not agreed to revise the security treaty. The editorial concluded: “We thus ask Mr. Roh to study the issue in earnest and enhance mutual trust between the two countries rather than just mentioning it openly.” That was a polite way of saying maybe Roh should have kept quiet.

The US-ROK Alliance states that the USFK commander who currently is General LaPorte would be the single commander of all ROK and US forces if hostilities should break out on the peninsula. One could make a strong arguement that a ROK Army general should be in charge since initially the overwhelming majority of troops on the peninsula are ROK Army troops. The US has about 20,000 troops here now compared to the ROK Army’s 800,000 soldiers.

However, the problems of having a ROK Army general in charge is that a ROK Army general is not trained in the hi tech modern warfare that the US is able to employ on an enemy with cruise missiles, stealth bombers, electronic warfare, Patriot missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers, Aegis destroyers, etc. etc. A US general is needed to ensure all these elements of modern warfare are implemented and coordinated effectively without causing fratricide and maximum destruction to the enemy. The ROK Army is highly proficient in infantry and artillery skills and will lead the fight on the ground. I can’t imagine the USFK commander would intefer with the ROK Army war plans without close consultation with the ROK Army chain of command.

I guess the simple solution if President Roh really wants to have the ROK Army in charge is to withdraw all the American forces out of Korea. He apparently may already be thinking about this:

In a little noticed speech, President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea has once again disparaged his nation’s alliance with the United States and cast doubt on whether this partnership should continue. Roh told graduating cadets at the Korean Air Force Academy that South Korea was fully capable of defending itself against North Korea, thus undermining the reason for posting American combat forces in his country.

With the current down sizing of USFK forces going on now, President Bush may be in more of hurrry to remove US troops from Korea than President Roh is.