SOUTH KOREA: South Korean demonstrators call on Washington to indefinitely postpone the transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul

Record ID: 213969

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Korean demonstrators call on Washington to indefinitely postpone the transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul
  • Date: 2nd May 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF BALLERINA DANCING HIP HOP DANCERS DANCING HIP HOP DANCER WEARING U.S. NATIONAL FLAG AND BALLERINA WEARING SOUTH KOREAN NATIONAL FLAG DANCING TOGETHER
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA424YQ0FY6Y1VHNK60FIP4E1P
  • Story Text: South Korean demonstrators rallied in the capital on Wednesday (May 2), calling on Washington to indefinitely postpone the transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul.
    About 500 pro-U.S. army protesters gathered in front of Seoul's train station chanting slogans while holding up banners with messages such as "We hope President Park Geun-hye achieves putting off the wartime operational control" and "We are opposed to a break up of the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command".
    During the rally, a hip hop dancer wearing the U.S. national flag and a ballerina wearing South Korean national flag danced together as a metaphor for harmony between two countries.
    "If the (U.S.) wartime operational control (to Seoul) is transferred and the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command is broken up, our military deterrent force would be weaker. Then, North Korea's provocative acts will follow. We oppose it because the Korean peninsula could be in danger," a protest leader and former defence minister Lee Sang-hoon said.
    The United States has about 28,000 forces in South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North nearly six decades after the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
    The U.S. military had long planned to hand over potential wartime operational control of South Korean forces by 2012, should conflict break out on the Korean peninsula again. But U.S. President Barack Obama and former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak in 2010 agreed to push back that date until the second half of 2015.
    The rally was held ahead of the meeting between current South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Obama at the White House on May 7 to discuss economic and security issues, including "countering the North Korean threat".
    North Korea has been comparatively quiet in recent days following weeks of nuclear war threats made after it was angered by U.N. sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korea military drills that have since ended on schedule.
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