Seoul: The top military officers of South Korea and the United States assessed on Monday that "meaningful progress" has been made toward Seoul's retaking of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington, as announced by South Korea's military.
According to Qatar News Agency, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Gen. Jin Yong-sung and his US counterpart, Gen. Dan Caine, reviewed these developments during the 50th Military Committee Meeting held in Seoul. This meeting marked their first face-to-face discussions in three months.
"They agreed to continue efforts to meet the conditions required for achieving OPCON transition and strengthen the alliance's combined defense posture," the military stated in a release cited by Yonhap News Agency. "Gen. Jin and Gen. Caine have the same understanding of the meaningful progress made across various fields, as confirmed through the annual evaluation conducted in accordance with the bilaterally agreed-upon standards of conditions-based operational control transition plan," it further stated.
The discussions occur as South Korea aims to regain OPCON from the United States within President Lee Jae Myung's term, which concludes in 2030. In addition to OPCON, Jin and Caine also deliberated on alliance modernization and agreed to enhance the alliance's capabilities, interoperability, and combined readiness posture to better respond to the evolving security environment and emerging threats.
The two leaders noted the increasingly complex security landscape in the Indo-Pacific, attributed to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities and the intensifying global arms race. Both sides acknowledged the importance of developing a robust combined defense posture under the allies' mutual defense treaty and committed to maximizing efforts to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the broader region.