USFK commander questions OPCON schedule, saying readiness comes first

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson on Friday urged caution as Seoul moves to accelerate its recovery of wartime operational control (OPCON), suggesting the readiness hurdles may be steeper than the Lee Jae Myung administration envisions. Brunson, who leads the 28,500-strong USFK as well as the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) and the U.N. Command, offered a cautious view as the Lee administration pushes to accelerate discussions on the OPCON transition, with the goal of completing it within Lee's five-year term that ends in 2030. "I know that, right now, President Lee says he wants to do this during his term of office. We know the start point and we know the end point, so we've got to meet the conditions in that time, but we've also got to be willing to say 'We can't get there from here,'" Brunson said during a webinar co-organized by the Korea Defense Veterans Association and the Korea-U.S. Alliance Forum. "We cannot say we're going to slide away from the conditions, just so that we can get this done in time," he added. "The conditions were written for a reasWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times