Defending South Korea:
Transferring Wartime Operational
Command (OPCON)
Featuring
a Keynote Address by
General
B. B. Bell, U.S. Army (ret.)
Former Commander of U.S. Forces Korea,
Combined Forces Command, and United Nations Command
Followed
by a Panel Discussion with
David S.
Maxwell
Associate Director, Center for Security
Studies, Georgetown University
Michael
E. O'Hanlon
Senior Fellow and Foreign Policy Research
Director, The Brookings Institution
Hosted by
Bruce
Klingner
Senior Research Fellow, Northeast Asia, The
Heritage Foundation
The decision to return wartime operational control (OPCON) of Republic
of Korea military forces to that country’s government has been controversial
since its 2007 inception. Washington and
Seoul appear on the cusp of again postponing the scheduled date for OPCON
transition. Seoul cites North Korea’s
growing nuclear capabilities as justification for delay while others argue its
past time for America’s ally to assume primary responsibility for its defense.
Beyond the timing of the transfer, there are concerns that the current
plan to split the combined command into two separate commands is ill-advised
and potentially dangerous during hostilities.
Indeed, Washington and Seoul have so fixated on OPCON transition as to
be distracted from ensuring robust combined and integrated allied capabilities
to deter and defeat the North Korean military threat.
Join us as General B.B. Bell, formerly the senior U.S. commander in
South Korea, provides his thoughts and recommendations on this timely and
important issue, followed by a panel of distinguished experts.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 – 2:00
to 4:00 p.m.
The Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium
RSVP
online | or call (202) 675-1752
News media inquiries, call (202) 675-1761
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