Seoul wants the wheel, but Washington questions its readiness

Sung Ki-hong, senior presidential secretary for public communication, said in an interview Tuesday that the government's push to transfer wartime operational control (Opcon) from the United States to Korea amounted to switching seats in a car.

“Right now, the United States is in the driver's seat and we're in the passenger's seat. Now we're switching roles so we can take the wheel,” he said. He stressed that this did not mean asking Washington to “get out of the taxi.”

But the central question is whether South Korea's military has sufficient capabilities to deter North Korea effectively once it takes the wheel.

A senior U.S. Defense Department official said the same day that the alliance's “threat environment” was evolving faster than ever. The official also stressed that the allies must be prepared to “deter and defeat all regional threats” before the transfer.

The rapidly evolving threat environment refers to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities. The reference to regional threats also suggests Washington expects Seoul to prepare for confronting challenges from China alongside the United States, not merely deterring Pyongyang.

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Michelle Park Steel echoed that position during a discussion Wednesday, saying China posed the greatest threat in the Indo-Pacific and that South Korea should now exercise leadership in the region.

Using Sung's analogy, Washington is effectively asking whether Seoul is qualified to take the wheel and whether both countries are heading toward the same destination.

Sung emphasized independent national defense, arguing that South Korea was probably the only country with comparable economic and military strength that did not exercise its own wartime operational control.

Yet contrary to President Lee Jae Myung's characterization of North Korea's nuclear weapons as defensive, Seoul faces an unusually serious security threat. Apart from Ukraine, which is fighting Russia, few countries face such an immediate threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Many Koreans remain unconvinced that transferring Opcon would genuinely strengthen national security when the South Korean military still relies heavily on the United States even for detecting North Korean nuclear threats.

Disagreements over the transfer have also disrupted preparations for the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) between the two allies.

Rather than attempting to establish a firm deadline for the transfer at this year's SCM, the government should focus on how South Korea and the United States can jointly respond to rapidly growing security threats.

That would do more to reassure the public and safeguard their livelihoods than repeatedly invoking the slogan of independent national defense.