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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his American counterpart Barack Obama announced a three-year delay in Washington's transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul, citing the volatile atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea's continued military provocations, most recently a deadly naval attack on a warship. The leaders also agreed to make concrete efforts to revive their long-stalled free trade agreement talks, as Obama set November as the deadline for completing necessary discussions. Obama began the summit with Lee with a show of his resolve to make North Korea pay a price for sinking a South Korean warship,...

US forces will regain control over a major annual military exercise with South Korea amid rising tensions with the North following the sinking of one of Seoul's warships, officials said on Thursday. Seoul's defence ministry said the Combined Forces Command led by US General Walter Sharp will retake control of the computerised war game called Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) from this year. In 2008 and last year the South's military took control of the exercise, to prepare for a scheduled transfer of wartime command in the military alliance. UFG, which is due to start in mid-August, is the world's largest...

South Korea is reviewing its defense policy following North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, a process that could significantly change Seoul's military alliance with Washington, according to officials engaged in the process. Over the past week, U.S. and South Korean leaders have outlined plans to conduct war games and strategy sessions to better equip the South for combating the type of submarine attack Pyongyang is accused by international investigators to have staged in March, killing 46 South Korean sailors. For the longer term, President Lee Myung-bak's conservative government could seek to alter the alliance's command structure...

U.S. and South Korean forces said they are ready to repel any threat posed by North Korea as 24 stealth fighter jets deploy to the region and a report said the military alert level has been raised. Naval vessels plan anti-submarine exercises close to the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea where one of the South’s warships sank on March 26, killing 46 sailors. An international team of experts last week concluded that a North Korean torpedo blew apart the Cheonan, prompting Kim Jong Il’s regime to cut all ties with the South and threaten “all-out war” over...

In the duel between North and South Korea, the question now is who will pull the trigger first? The answer may be neither, but don't count on it. The dueling now focuses on two quite different flashpoints. The first is the West or Yellow Sea, where North Korea has vowed to open fire against any South Korean vessel intruding in its waters. One issue there is how to define which waters are North Korean. The North refuses to recognize the Northern Limit Line, set by the United Nations Command after the Korean War (1950-1953) and challenged by North Korea in...

Clinton: Koreas security situation 'precarious' By MATTHEW LEE (AP) BEIJING — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship has created a "highly precarious" security situation in the region and that the Obama administration is working to prevent an escalation of tension that could lead to conflict. Speaking to reporters in Beijing shortly after the White House issued a statement offering Washington's full and unequivocal support for Seoul, Clinton said all of North Korea's neighbors, including its chief ally China, understand the seriousness of the matter and want to "contain"...

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the 28,000 American troops stationed in South Korea to 'ensure readiness' as tensions with North Korea escalate. Mr Obama demanded Pyongyang apologise for sinking a South Korean naval ship and punish those responsible for the 'belligerent and threatening' attack. He said U.S. support for Seoul was unequivocal and that the American troops stationed on the peninsula would be put on alert. The comments come as the rhetoric between North and South continued to harden. SNIP With U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Beijing, Washington has pressed North Korea's only major ally, China, to...

President Barack Obama has directed the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to "ensure readiness" and deter future aggression from North Korea, the White House said on Monday. The United States gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish North Korea for sinking one of its naval ships, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. The White House urged North Korea to apologize and change its behavior, he said. "We endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent...

SEOUL — The U.S. military canceled this week’s dress rehearsal for the evacuation of American civilians from South Korea amid growing tensions on the peninsula. U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement Tuesday that the Courageous Channel exercise — which was to run Thursday through Monday — was canceled to avoid the appearance that it was scheduled in response to the March sinking of a South Korean warship or the subsequent investigation. South Korean investigators are expected to announce Thursday that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the March 26 explosion that ripped the Cheonan patrol ship in two...

Charles Reeder remembers the backlash after the ‘Highway 56 Incident’ in 2002, when a couple of US soldiers driving an armoured vehicle accidentally crushed two South Korean schoolgirls, yet were found not-guilty of negligent homicide by a US military court. ‘It rocked the whole USFK,’ says Reeder, 42, a recent retiree from the United States Forces Korea, who was stationed in downtown Seoul at the time. ‘It was painful…We were out there on the gates, and it was like a siege mentality.’ South Korean activists broke into a US facility in the northern part of the capital, he recalls, and...

Meanwhile the South Korean military plans to beef up security in the waters near its maritime border with North Korea. Reports indicate the South Korean Navy will conduct more anti-submarine drills in the West Sea where a warship sank in March. claiming the lives of 46 sailors. Seoul's National Defense Ministry also plans to request government funds to improve underwater surveillance by modernizing sonar devices and naval radar systems. And more joint anti-submarine warfare exercises between South Korean and US forces could take place in the East and West Seas. In a report to President Lee Myung-bak South Korean defense...

President Lee Myung-bak will chair a meeting of top military commanders next week, his spokesman said Sunday, a reflection of how seriously he regards last month's deadly sinking of a naval ship in waters near North Korea. Lee will preside over the military commanders' meeting on Tuesday, marking the first time in history for a South Korean president to chair such a meeting, presidential spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said. The 1,200-ton patrol ship Cheonan sank in waters near the tense western sea border with North Korea on March 26, revealing problems with the way the military responded to the deadly disaster...

The U.S. government believes a North Korean torpedo attack was the most likely cause of the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship, a foreign diplomatic source in Seoul said Sunday, citing solid "circumstantial evidence." The remarks come as South Koreans increasingly believe the communist North was responsible for the sinking that left 46 sailors dead. A joint investigation team involving U.S. and other foreign experts has tentatively concluded that the mysterious sinking was due to a "close-range" explosion under the 1,200-ton frigate Cheonan while it was on patrol in waters off the disputed western sea border with North...

SEOUL — U.S. Forces Korea soon will get a name change. USFK commander Gen. Walter Sharp has announced that the 28,500-strong U.S. presence here will become the U.S. Korea Command later this year, one of the changes the U.S. military will undergo as the South Korean military prepares to assume wartime control of its own troops in two years. A date for the change has not been set, USFK spokesman David Oten said Tuesday. However, troops moving to South Korea this summer will fill billets for KORCOM, as the command will be known, he said. Oten said KORCOM will have...

Top U.S. military commanders said Friday that they are ready to transfer the wartime command control of South Korean troops to Seoul as scheduled in 2012, but left open the possibility of a delay if governments agree. "To the extent that the government would question that, I think then it becomes a government to government decision between the United States and the Republic of Korea," Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "This is a government of Korea decision, or certainly OPCON transition will be considered by the government of Korea...

South Korea and the U.S. have completed an operational plan that envisages military responses to six types of emergencies in North Korea including regime collapse, a government source said Sunday. The source said the two sides will continue to complement and develop the plan. In 1999, during the Kim Dae-jung administration, the South Korean and U.S. militaries gave shape to the contingency plan, but it was then billed as a "concept plan" and envisaged five scenarios -- a civil war caused by a transition of power or a coup after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death; theft and sale abroad...

U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp has warned of sudden regime collapse in North Korea and called for urgent preparation for such an eventuality. Sharp was speaking at a subcommittee hearing of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. "We would also be mindful of the potential for instability in North Korea," he said. "Combined with the country's disastrous centralized economy, dilapidated industrial sector, insufficient agricultural base, malnourished military and populace, and developing nuclear programs, the possibility of a sudden leadership change in the North could be destabilizing and unpredictable." South Korea and the U.S. are ready for any...

The top American military officer here has proposed that South Korea buy a key U.S. underground command bunker on the outskirts of Seoul, as his troops will move to an area south of the Han River, relinquishing wartime operational control to Korean commanders, a source at the Combined Forces Command (CFC) said Sunday. CFC Commander Gen. Walter Sharp, who concurrently heads the 28,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), made the proposal to South Korea during the Key Resolve command-post exercise that ended Thursday, the source told The Korea Times. The Ministry of National Defense is reviewing the offer but has yet...

Korea and the United States plan to conclude bilateral talks this year on the method and procedures for possible overseas redeployment of American troops stationed here, sources in Korea said yesterday. An informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sides were seeking to conclude negotiations before the annual defense ministerial talks, known as the Security Consultative Meeting, slated for October. “Talks are being held between the two sides to conclude the details and procedures of strategic flexibility of the U.S. Forces Korea,” the source said. Seoul had opposed the flexibility of U.S. troops as it earlier believed the...

The number of U.S. troops in South Korea will remain unchanged after Seoul takes back the wartime operational control of its troops from Washington, the top U.S. commander here said Wednesday, strongly denying speculation of weakened U.S. military support after the transition. "The U.S. troop numbers will stay the same as we fight side-by-side. The transition does not mean the United States will reduce its commitment," Gen. Walter Sharp told a group of graduating cadets of the Korea Military Academy. "We will never reduce our responsibility to defend Korea. It will always be our No. 1 responsibility." The U.S. Forces...