South Korea has asked the United States about regaining control over its military in the event of war, a presidential spokesman said on Wednesday. South Korea allowed its military to be controlled by U.N. forces, led by the United States, during the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. The command structure has changed since then but the United States would still have wartime control over South Korean forces. In 1994, South Korea regained peacetime control of its military, which has 681,000 troops, mostly ground forces. "The question of discussing the subject of wartime command has been formally raised with the United States," a spokesman with the presidential Blue House said by telephone. South Korea raised the topic in September and there has been no formal reply from the United States yet, the spokesman was quoted as saying by Reuters. There are about 32,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a part of its defenses against North Korea, which has about 1.2 million troops. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to visit Seoul on Oct. 21 for annual security talks with the South Korean defense minister, a defense ministry official said. It was not clear whether they would formally begin discussions on the transfer of wartime command, officials said. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said it would be in South Korea's interest to regain wartime control of its military. "Particularly, through the exercise of the wartime operational control authority, the Korean Armed Forces would emerge as truly self- reliant forces, both in name and substance, that is responsible for safeguarding the Korean Peninsula on our own," Roh said on Oct. 1 in an address to South Korean soldiers.
