Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok favors retaining the allies’ three agreed conditions for wartime command transfer, The Korea Herald reported Tuesday, after U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Xavier Brunson cited “new standards.”
Kim said a changed security environment alone did not justify revising the transfer framework, the newspaper reported. Brunson made his remarks at an Oct. 14 event in Washington, where he pointed to North Korea’s missile activity, according to Yonhap.
Yonhap later reported that an unnamed U.S. Forces Korea official said Brunson meant the security environment had changed, not the transfer conditions agreed by the two countries. That explanation has not been confirmed in a public command statement.
For the transfer to proceed, South Korea must be able to lead the combined defense effort, the alliance must be capable of responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, and the security environment must be suitable. The two countries adopted a conditions-based approach in 2014 and signed a transition plan in 2015.
South Korea holds operational control of its forces in peacetime. During war, operational control of combined forces rests with the commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC).
President Lee Jae Myung has pressed for an early wartime command transfer, describing it as a matter of military sovereignty in an Oct. 1 account from his office. In written testimony published in April, Brunson supported accelerating the transfer under the bilateral plan while making South Korea’s capabilities, rather than a deadline, the deciding factor.
The defense chiefs’ communiqué after their Nov. 4, 2025, meeting reaffirmed that the agreed conditions must be met before a handover. The allies agreed to pursue certification of the Future-Combined Forces Command Headquarters’ Full Operational Capability in 2026. The communiqué did not announce completed certification or set a transfer date.
