US generals warn against rush for OPCON transfer

[soryang]

Korea Herald
By Choi Si-young Published : Feb 21, 2021 - 16:38 Updated : Feb 22, 2021 - 00:32

South Korea’s push to take over its wartime operational command from the US, which has been responsible for it since the 1953 Korean War armistice, has taken a more serious hit after a former US commander openly challenged the plan.

Retired Gen. Burwell Bell, who headed the joint forces from 2006 to 2008, withdrew his previous support for the transition, saying the change would have a devastating fallout.

“If the United States places restrictions on the employment of its troops in wartime due to a premature decision by the Republic of Korea to force OPCON transfer, this would likely fracture the longtime alliance and put the Korean people at great risk of falling under the North Korean regime,” Bell told Voice of America in an interview Feb. 10.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210221000220

Don't agree with this approach. if South Korea has to be ready to defeat the North Korean nuclear threat to gain wartime OPCON then it could never be gained. Also, if there was an option for participation in a nuclear response such as I have seen discussed in some defense literature, it involves the deployment of tactical nukes to South Korea, with South Korean participation. Maybe the US seeks to achieve some kind of leverage over North Korea and China with this implied deployment. It's funny how the article just seems to posit the democratically elected president of our ally as some kind of ignorant person. Am I to presume that no one in South Korea agrees with their president? Is it the role of VOA to engage South Korea, or North Korea?

Deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea is a very bad idea.