The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to a conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon) to South Korea, a senior ruling-party lawmaker said on Sunday, 8 November, after talks with US military leaders in Hawaii.

Rep. Jin Sung-joon of the Democratic Party, who chairs the National Assembly's defence committee, told a press conference in Seoul that US officials had acknowledged that “policy-related factors” could affect the transfer, but had confirmed the agreement itself was unchanged. “The existing agreement between Korea and the United States remains intact, and the conditions have not changed as of now,” he said.

Jin led a delegation of the defence committee on a five-day visit to US Pacific Command and subordinate commands in Hawaii from 1 to 5 November, meeting the US Pacific commander and other senior officers to discuss the alliance and security cooperation.

The US side also explained that the decision to postpone the Korea-US Security Consultative Meeting until next year was a scheduling matter and had nothing to do with any disagreement over the Opcon transfer, according to Jin.

South Korea handed wartime operational control to the US-led United Nations Command during the 1950-53 Korean War. It passed to the Korea-US Combined Forces Command when that command was created in 1978, and Seoul regained peacetime control in 1994, but wartime control remains in Washington's hands. President Lee Jae Myung's administration aims to regain it before his term ends in 2030, or even earlier.

The visit also touched on recent differences between the allies over North Korea's missile activity, after South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles launched on 29 October while US Pacific Command put the figure at two. Full details are in the Korea JoongAng Daily.