Former GNP representative Park Geun-hye spoke with high ranking NATO officials concerning issues relating to the handover of operational control (OPCON) of wartime command. She was basically told that a) having two allied commanders can be dangerous on the battlefield, and that b) giving up OPCON to the U.S. is not viewed as a sovereignty issue in NATO. They also suggest that it’s “not too late” for Korea to reverse course:

“If Korea takes back the wartime opcon and the Combined Forces Command (CFC) is dismantled subsequently, the U.S. and Korean troops will get to conduct operations separately when a war breaks out, and this will lead to lower efficiency in responding to an armed aggression against South Korea.”

[. . .]

Park said, “NATO officials said, it is not easy to carry out operations separately in peacetime and suddenly cooperate in wartime, citing as an example that during World War Ⅱ, the Allies suffered losses of lives as a result of poor communication with U.S. troops when they conducted military operations in Luxemburg.”

She said, “NATO does not view the collective defense system (underpinned by the wartime opcon) as an infringement on sovereignty and the officials said, the CFC system is a very effective model,” and emphasized, “It is not too late to talk about the (transfer of) the wartime opcon after the U.S. forces’ relocation is completed and the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved.”

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