US and Korea Agree on Alliance Transformation Plan

From the Chosun:

According to the roadmap, the two countries will set up a new system of military cooperation to ensure initial operational capability by 2009, and formulate a new operational plan to replace the existing joint strategy codenamed OPLAN 5027. The Korean military is to expand and restructure its Joint Chiefs of Staff. And the two countries agreed to set up an "Alliance Military Coordination Center" under the Korea-U.S. Military Committee, a consultative body consisting of the chairmen of the Korean and U.S. joint chiefs of staff, to assist the military committee and strengthen cooperation.

The two countries are to establish altogether six cooperative bodies, including a joint information center, a joint operational center, and a combined logistics cooperation center to ensure smooth cooperation between Korean troops and the USFK. They also agreed to maintain a combined aviation and space operations center between Korean Army, Navy and Air Force operation commands and their USFK counterparts. They will conduct five joint military exercises in preparation for the handover from 2010 until early 2012 to make sure operational capability is up to scratch.

All of this is really nothing new and talked about before, it is just now finally been agreed upon.  The big questions is what kind of command relationship and size of reinforcements the US will have in case of hostilities with North Korea.  The Korea Herald provides some answers:

Under the new alliance system, ground and naval forces operations will be led by the Korean military, while the United States will provide aerial-centric support to the Korean troops. The alliance’s air forces will create a combined air and space operation center to enhance joint command for U.S.-led aerial operations in wartime.

By 2009, the two countries will also repeal the allies’ combined war scenario, codenamed OPLAN 5027, and draw up a new war plan designed for independent operations of the two militaries.

Under the OPLAN 5027, if hostilities break out, the United States would deploy up to 690,000 troops, 160 vessels and 2,000 aircraft to the peninsula, in addition to the current troops, which number about 29,000, to remove the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and defeat his 1.17-million-member military.

It doesn’t take a military strategist to realize that a 690,000 American troop reinforcement is not going to happen.  First of all the US does not have that kind of available man power and even if the US military did, by the time they deployed to Korea the war would be over.  Any immediate reinforcements in a 2nd Korean War would have to come from forces stationed in Japan to be able to reach the peninsula in time to effect the land battle there.  The thing I wonder is if the US should use ground forces to conduct offensive operations against North Korea?

 I tend to think US ground forces should be used for other purposes such as protecting US bases on the peninsula, which will be a whole lot easier once the USFK transformation is complete.  Any ground war against North Korea will be extremely brutal and casualties will be high far surpassing anything the US has seen in Iraq.  A war on the Korean peninsula would remind people what a real war is, which the world hasn’t seen since the days of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980’s.  First of all, should the US military pay such a high price in blood when the ROK Army is more than capable of fighting a ground war themselves?  Secondly, I have long believed that no American troops should step into North Korea for a variety of reasons I have listed before which you can read about here. Providing air and naval superiority during any conflict on the peninsula should be enough to ensure the success of the ROK military without the need of a second Inchon Landing Operation.

You can read more over at the Marmot’s Hole.