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The joint U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command, which gives Washington operational control of South Korea’s combat forces in time of war, will be replaced by two separate national-level commands in 2012, according to South Korean Chief Director of Strategic Planning Lt. Gen. Lee Sung Chool. This transition is already under way but will be more noticeable in 2009, when South Korea’s own Joint Chiefs of Staff (for which Lee works) begin to take on responsibilities as an independent military command, shifting U.S. forces more and more into a supporting role.
Though the Combined Forces Command was formalized in 1978, Seoul surrendered both peacetime and wartime operational command of its military to the U.N. Command shortly after the North invaded in 1950. It was only in 1994 that it regained peacetime control. To this day, should war break out in South Korea, the United States would legally assume command of all South Korean combat forces. This arrangement will come to an end in 2012.
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