Photograph Source: U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class John Bellino – Public Domain

Over seventy years ago, the US took control of South Korea’s military.  To this day, it still controls it.

Why?

This confounds every notion of state sovereignty: a supposedly sovereign entity–South Korea–has its own military subjugated under US control.

Transfer of OpCon (operational control) of one nation’s army to another is usually temporary, most often during wartime.

In Korea, it has lasted over 76 years.

South Korea has asked for OPCON back, repeatedly.  It has been three decades since South Korea first made the demand.

The US has always delayed, filibustered, waffled, and moved the goalposts.

More recently, the US has signaled more delay on OPCON transfer, despite current president Lee Jae Myung’s demand that it be transferred before the end of his term in 2030.

The allies are currently assessing the “full operational capability” (FOC) after validating the “initial operational capability” (IOC).

Seoul aims to wrap up the FOC certification and announce a target year for the Opcon transition at the upcoming SCM, before moving on to the remaining assessment of the “full mission capability,” which it expects to take about a year or so.
….[However] Washington remains firm in its position that Seoul is not ready for FOC certification, weighing on Seoul’s push to accelerate the Opcon transition.

This follows on US Forces Korea Commander Xavier Brunson’s repeated declarations of his opposition to OPCON transfer: only conditions matter, not timelines.  According to Brunson, there can be no timeline to return control of South Korea’s troops to South Korea.  Seventy-six years is not enough.

South Korea had originally set deadlines for the return of OPCON.  The US delayed, and delayed, and denied.  It finally agreed–but only if certain conditions were met.  These were agreed to in 2014, and reaffirmed them in 2017.  Yet another decade has passed since those agreements.

Cutting through the fog, there are essentially three conditions that the US has set as preconditions for South Korea to regain control over its own troops:

1. Can South Korea defend itself?  (Can........

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