South Korea’s defense ministry and the U.S. department of defense were in consensus that tremendous progress had been made in fulfilling conditions for a transfer of wartime operational control, according to a ministry official on 24th September, 2025.
At present, America would direct allied forces in the case of a war on the Korean peninsula, but South Korea has been trying to take away “operational control.”
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged to break a “vicious cycle of unnecessary military tensions” with North Korea, as he hoped for peaceful coexistence and common growth.
Following a senior-level Seoul meeting, the South Korean defence ministry released a statement stating that the two nations had evaluated general military cooperation to transform the alliance into a mutual, forward-looking, and modernised one.
The two sides further agreed to collaborate on follow-up action on what was discussed during the first summit last August between the two nations’ leaders, the ministry added without giving details.
The statement did not reference the question of the control of operations, but one South Korean official affirmed an earlier report by the Yonhap news agency that both sides had agreed in the meeting.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung previously stated he concurred with U.S. President Donald Trump at the summit to enlarge cooperation in defense fields in high technology.
