South Korean President Roh has a penchant for making rhetorical statements concerning the relationship with the U.S. The latest example from the Chosun Ilbo, ‘Roh Renews Call for Return of Wartime Command:’

At a ceremony marking the 57th Armed Forces Day on Sunday, Roh said, “If we achieve military reform, we will be able to take back our right to exercise wartime command, and through it take responsibility for securing the peninsula and resurrect our military as a force that can live up to its name, truly sovereign and independent.”

On Independence Day 2003, Roh first vowed to recover command of Korean forces in an emergency from the U.S., with whom it rests under a controversial 1950 agreement, within 10 years.

Operational control refers to control of the overall command of the United Nations Command (UNC), and the Combined Forces Command (CFC), which includes U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), as well as the ROK Army (ROKA). Plans are underway to reduce the ROKA from 680,000 to 500,000 by 2020.

It is fairly safe to say that there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that operational control over U.S. forces will be given to South Korea. The two main reasons are the relative experience (especially compared recent U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan), and training levels. I’m not why Roh is even playing up the nationalistic card, since he has practically been begging to step down.