SEOUL, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The new South Korean government under President Moon Jae-in planned to push for a rapid recovery of wartime operational control of South Korean forces from the United States.
It was unveiled on Wednesday in the five-year plan for state management under the new administration, which was inaugurated on May 10, according to the presidential Blue House.
Under the preliminary version of the plan, South Korea would speed up preparations for the transfer of wartime command of its troops from Washington to complete it "within the five-year tenure" of President Moon.
It was altered in the final version into a "rapid transfer" based on the firm South Korea-U.S. alliance. On his campaign trail, Moon pledged an early recovery of its wartime operational control.
The alteration was made under the instruction of President Moon, a Blue House official told reporters.
South Korea handed over its operational command to the U.S. forces after the three-year Korean War broke out in 1950. The country won back its peacetime operational control in 1994.
Late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun agreed with his U.S. counterpart in 2006 to regain the wartime control, and the transfer date was set at April 2012 during the following talks between defense chiefs of the two allies.
Former President Lee Myung-bak, Roh's successor, delayed the transfer to December 2015, and impeached President Park Geun-hye actually put it off indefinitely as she agreed upon the so-called "conditions-based" transfer in October 2014 citing the growing nuclear and missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Conservative politicians had opposed the early transfer, which they claimed could cause a security vacuum and the crisis in the South Korea-U.S. alliance. Major government, media and political posts in South Korea are occupied by U.S.-dependent figures.
Despite the domestic disagreement over the timing of the transfer, U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to the early transfer in his summit meeting with President Moon in Washington for two days through June 30.
According to the joint statement unveiled after the summit, the two leaders decided to continue the alliance's work to "expeditiously enable the conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control" of South Korean forces from Washington.
In return, the South Korean side promised to continue to acquire the critical military capabilities, necessary to lead the combined defense against the DPRK's nuclear and missile threats, through interoperable Kill Chain, Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and other alliance systems, according to the statement.
To enhance self-reliant defense capability, the Moon government planned to adopt its home-grown defense systems including the KAMD, the Kill Chain and the Korea Massive Punishment Retaliation (KMPR) systems.
The KAMD is a project to develop its indigenous missile defense system to shoot down incoming DPRK missiles at multiple layers. The project includes the development of interceptors such as medium-range surface-to-air missiles (M-SAM) and long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM) that can intercept missiles at an altitude of less than 100 km.
The Kill Chain is designed to preemptively strike the DPRK's missile launch sites when signs of first strike are spotted. The KMPR is a project to preemptively strike the DPRK's leadership and headquarters with massive missile attacks when Pyongyang's first strike signs are detected.
To finance the development of the three systems, President Moon said Tuesday that he would raise the country's defense budget to 2.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 2.4 percent within his five-year presidency.
About 40.3 trillion won (36 billion U.S. dollars) was allocated to this year's defense budget of South Korea. It could rise to as much as 50 trillion won in the next five years.
Meanwhile, the Moon administration vowed to make all-out efforts to eliminate corruptions in the defense industry, which Moon depicted as "an act benefitting the enemy."
Last week, prosecutors raided the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the country's sole aircraft developer and manufacturer, which was suspected of overstating production costs and embezzling company funds. Five KAI subcontractors were stormed by prosecutors on Tuesday as part of the ongoing investigation.
The investigation into the KAI was widely forecast to become a starting point of the overall probe into corruptions in the defense industry.
President Moon ordered the restoration of the government-wide anti-corruption committee meeting that was first introduced in 2004, vowing to root out the defense industry corruptions.
