South Korea seeks to retake wartime control of its armed forces

A South Korean soldier treats a simulated wound to earn his expert soldier badge at Camp Casey, South Korea, Sept. 16, 2025. (Seu Chan/U.S. Army)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – Seoul is seeking to reclaim wartime control of its military from the U.S.-led Combined Forces Command in a move that would close a chapter of the Korean War.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration will try to meet the criteria that would allow Seoul to finally retake control of its forces in the event of a war, according to a list of government goals released by South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.

South Korea’s alliance with the United States will become a “future-oriented” strategic partnership alongside a “firm and mature” relationship with Japan, the list states.

The transfer of authority during wartime, or operational control, will be based on the allies’ “comprehensive deterrence capability,” according to the list.

The nature of South Korea’s control of its military dates to 1954, a year after the Korean War armistice, when Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Syngman Rhee agreed to allow the U.N. Command to remain in control of South Korea’s forces.

The command, led by Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, oversaw the allied response to North Korea’s invasion of the South, and later, China’s intervention to aid the North.

The U.N. Command transferred its operational authority to the Combined Forces Command in 1978.

The commands are still led by a four-star American general with a South Korean general as deputy commander.

In 1994, South Korea reclaimed peacetime control of its military. The two countries agreed to transfer wartime control at an undetermined date.

“Several aspects of the security relationship are changing as the U.S. moves from a leading to a supporting role in the defense of [South Korea],” the State Department said in a Feb. 10, 1997, fact sheet.

The Korean Peninsula’s security is “first and foremost, a matter for the Korean people themselves to decide,” the State Department added. “The U.S. is prepared to assist in this process if the two sides desire.”

Negotiations over the transfer of wartime control stalled for decades after North Korea conducted several weapon tests, including its first nuclear detonation in 2006.

The exact criteria for transferring wartime control are not public; however, former U.S. Forces Korea commanders have publicly said it requires Seoul’s military to prove it can defend itself from an attack.

In 2022, approximately 300 U.S. troops were temporarily placed under the command of South Korea’s military for the first time as part of an 11-day exercise at the Korea Combat Training Center in Inje county.

National defense and military science professor Kim Jeong Ki of Yeonsung University in Anyang stressed that the transfer of wartime control was a matter of national sovereignty.

“It is important in a way that our military oversees our own defense, in peacetime or during a war,” he told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. “It’s been over 70 years since the Korean War, and now it is important to transfer and exercise the operational control.”