U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) official on ROK-U.S. OPCON talks: “We won’t prejudge”

[Financial News] The United States Department of Defense (DoD), which is discussing the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) between South Korea and the United States, said it would not prejudge the outcome. The department rejected claims that it is currently at odds with South Korea.
DoD officials responded on the 29th (local time) to questions from South Korean media outlets about the matter. One official said, “The transfer of OPCON remains a conditions-based process mutually agreed upon by the United States and the Republic of Korea.” The official added, “Both countries remain committed to ensuring that the necessary conditions are met before any transfer takes place,” but said, “We will not prejudge decisions or outcomes in the bilateral process.”
The previous day, South Korean Minister of National Defense Kang Shin-chul and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met in Cebu, Philippines, and agreed to postpone the 58th ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), which they had been seeking to hold within this year, until early 2027. The two ministers instead agreed to hold one more defense ministers’ meeting in the United States in December. It will be the first time in 28 years, since 1998, that the SCM is held in the following year.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the postponement of the SCM was “a two-stage approach: building firm consensus on key issues through consultations between the defense ministers in December, then making a final decision at the SCM early next year.” It added, “There are no major differences between South Korea and the United States.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense did not issue a separate release about the defense ministers’ meeting held in the Philippines on the 28th. In response, a DoD official said, “That was a brief, informal meeting, and it is standard practice not to issue press releases about this kind of meeting.” The official said the claim that the absence of a U.S. press release indicated disagreements or tensions between South Korea and the United States over OPCON or the SCM “is not true.”


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