SK: Intellectuals Come Out Against Sole Troop Control

Intellectuals Come Out Against Sole Troop Control

Intellectuals on Tuesday broke their silence on Korea’s plans to take over wartime operational control of its troops from the U.S. Protests against the plan so far were primarily led by retired generals and former defense ministers, but now civil servants and serving officers, lawyers, activists and business leaders as well as academics signed a petition urging the government to scrap the plan. “The Roh Moo-hyun administration is politicizing the security issue,” a group of 722 signatories said in a statement announced at a press conference in Myeongdong. “If we take over wartime operational control and Combined Forces Command is dismantled, it could cause our security environment to deteriorate and our military dependence on the U.S. and Japan would increase further.”

The statement said while many Korean intellectuals “have been critical of the structure of the Korea-U.S. alliance, which is not based on an equal partnership, and have argued for taking back wartime operational control from the U.S., the alliance currently maintains an optimal security cooperation based on an equal partnership and mutual respect.” They added it was “unreasonable” to pursue on a critical security issue that could determine national survival for political gain. “Exercising sole wartime operational control requires a huge amount of money, which is why we need to discuss the issue only after becoming an advanced nation. The truth is that we do not have the capability required to exercise sole wartime operational control,” the statement said. “It will not be too late to raise the issue after North Korea gives up its nuclear program and the two Koreas build a peace framework on the peninsula.” (englishnews@chosun.com )

A rather Confucian action to take. I can't think of anything comparable being done by U.S. academics; perhaps some signed a petition against the second Gulf War, but no organized effort. Perhaps our so-called intellectuals cannot be taken seriously as neutral observers interested only in the common good, given their supposed partisan leanings.