US wants S Korea to assume wartime command in '09

SEOUL, Aug 27: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has proposed South Korea assume wartime command of its troops from the United States in 2009, the South Korean defence ministry said today.

That timeframe compares with Seoul's goal of taking command by 2012.

In a letter to Seoul earlier this month, Rumsfeld also called for an ''equitable'' sharing of defence costs, the ministry said in a statement.

''No decision has been made yet regarding the timing of wartime command transfer,'' it said, expecting South Korea and the United States to reach a conclusion through further discussions.

Seoul has faced some criticism at home for a possible loss of national security through the transfer, but has said it would be in the country's best interests to have wartime control of its troops.

South Korea ceded wartime command to US-led UN forces during the 1950-1953 Korean War. It obtained peacetime command over its troops in 1994.

The United States currently has about 30,000 troops in South Korea at military bases spread throughout the country.

South Korea has more than 650,000 soldiers facing communist neighbour North Korea's 1.2-million-strong army.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in truce instead of a peace treaty.

REUTERS