[Anchor]
The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States have decided to postpone the annual Security Consultative Meeting, or SCM, which was scheduled for this year, to early next year. This is a very unusual decision, and analysis suggests it comes as the two sides have failed to narrow their differences over the timing of the wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer. Amid this situation, Representative Jin Sung-joon of the Democratic Party, who chairs the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, has been denied a U.S. visa.
Reporter Noh Dong-gyu reports.
[Reporter]
The defense ministers of South Korea and the United States, visiting the Philippines to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus, held talks for about 40 minutes yesterday (October 28).
It was the first meeting between Minister Kang Shin-chul and Secretary Hegseth.
The Ministry of National Defense said the two chiefs agreed to cooperate closely so that the OPCON transfer can proceed smoothly and in a timely manner. It added that they agreed to hold a South Korea-U.S. defense ministerial meeting in Washington this December and convene the SCM early next year.
It marks the first time in 28 years, since 1998, that the SCM, an annual defense ministerial consultative body, has been delayed past the end of the year.
Analysis suggests that as holding the SCM within this year became difficult due to differences over the OPCON transfer, the two sides opted to conduct final adjustments through a separate ministerial meeting in advance.
The South Korean government had sought to establish the target year for the OPCON transfer, the so-called "Year X," through the SCM within this year, but the timing of the meeting had been repeatedly delayed from its initially planned October or November timeframe.
[Kang Shin-chul / Minister of National Defense (October 26): "We are making these efforts to verify Full Operational Capability (FOC) and determine 'Year X' (the year of the OPCON transfer) at the SCM... Regarding 'Year X,' we are generally moving forward with a shared understanding with the U.S. side."]
In particular, remarks on October 14 by General Brunson, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, that "conditions for the OPCON transfer have definitely changed and new criteria that must be met have emerged," drew pushback from the South Korean government and the ruling party, which maintained that "there would be no problem even if the transfer were made right now."
Amid this, Jin Sung-joon, a Democratic Party lawmaker and chairman of the parliamentary defense committee, expressed regret, saying his U.S. visa issuance had been denied.
Jin criticized the denial, saying he had initially planned to visit the U.S. Pacific Command starting November 1 and had even confirmed a meeting schedule, arguing that it restricted the sovereign activities of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.
(Video by Cho Moo-hwan | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun and Park Taeyoung)
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