President Lee Myung-bak ordered his military Monday to work diligently to prepare for the takeover of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the U.S. in 2015, the new target year for the transition.
In their summit in Canada late last month on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting, Lee agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama to postpone the OPCON
transfer till Dec. 1, 2015 from April 17, 2012, the former date agreed on by their predecessors -- Roh Moo-hyun and George W. Bush. Lee and Obama cited North Korea's growing military threats highlighted by its deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in March.
"As (the target date) can't be delayed any more after it was put off till 2015, the military should make painstaking preparations to fully maintain South Korea-U.S. combined operational capability even after the OPCON transition," Lee said while giving a letter of assignment to Gen. Han Min-koo, the newly appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to Lee's spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.
Han replaces Gen. Lee Sang-eui, who retired to take responsibility for the military's poor handling of the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan
warship.
The president instructed Han to step up efforts to improve the military's integrated operational capability, the spokesman added.