The US Army Chief of Staff visits South Korea, assures South Korea is capable of reclaiming its wartime operational command from the US in 2015; South Korea to speed up the deployment of long-range missile to deal with North Korean threat
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    • JANUARY 7-13

    According to reports, US Army chief General Raymond Odinero, during his recent two-day visit to Seoul, met with his South Korean counterpart General Cho Jung-hwan and the two discussed the ways to strengthen the allies’ deterrence against North Korea after the planned transfer of operational command from Washington to Seoul in 2015. Odinero expressed confidence that South Korea strong confidence in South Korea’s army’s capability in reclaiming its wartime operational command and taking responsibility of security in Asia-Pacific. He also stated that with a view to strgthening the US-South Korea combat capability, the US government has recently approved deploying an additional attack-reconnaissance squadron with 24 Apache helicopters in South Korea. At present 28,500 US soldiers are currently stationed in South Korea. 1

    In another development, reports noted that South Korea intends to speed up its development of long-range missile capable of striking North Korea and to deploy them as early as possible. It is worth noting that under the new missile agreement between Seoul and Washington that was signed in October 2012, the South was allowed to extend its range of ballistic missiles from 300 kilometers to 800 kilometers. 2

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