The United States will hand back wartime operational control of South Korea's armed forces in 2012. The deal reached between Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, and Kim Jang Soo, his Korean counterpart, will end a command arrangement that has been in place since the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Under the deal announced on Friday, the current ROK (South Korea)-US Combined Forces Command, which is headed by a US general, will be disbanded, and American forces in the country will move into a supporting role.
"The agreement will serve as a key launching pad for a take-off in the South Korea-US alliance, praised as the most successful bond in the past 50 years," the South Korean president's office said in a statement.The United States, stretched by engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, had hoped to transfer command as early as 2009, but ultimately agreed to South Korea's insistence that responsibilities be shifted at a slower pace.
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