[Kyunghyang, Jan. 11] Beginning This Year the South Korean Military Will Hold ROK-US Exercise Key Resolve

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Beginning This Year the South Korean Military Will Hold ROK-US Exercise Key Resolve

Posted on : 2013-01-11 13:49

Starting this year, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff will supervise exercise Key Resolve previously organized by the ROK-US Combined Forces Command. The South Korean military will be supervising a large-scale ROK-US joint exercise for the first time since its establishment. 

The transition of wartime operational control scheduled for December 2015 is expected to gain momentum from this initiative. On December 10, a military official said, "The South Korean military will head exercise Key Resolve beginning in early March. It's the start of preparations to strengthen the capacity of the South Korean military ahead of the transition of wartime operational control." 

He explained, "The South Korean military's supervision of Key Resolve was expected at the time the two countries agreed to hand over wartime operational control. The Korean military will gradually prepare to 'stand alone' while organizing Key Resolve exercises every year until 2015."

Artillery live fire exercise during Key Resolve / Yonhap News

Key Resolve is a ROK-US command post exercise, in which commanders of various units, the command unit of military staff, and Signallers take part to cultivate command and control capabilities while maintaining communication under a hypothetical situation. Key Resolve was initiated to replace another ROK-US joint military exercise, Team Spirit, when it was canceled in 1994 due to political factors such as the nuclear negotiations with North Korea. 

Key Resolve was originally called the Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, Integration (RSOI), but in 2008 was renamed the Key Resolve, an important resolution. The exercises mainly include procedures quickly dispatching and arranging equipment and large-scale U.S. reinforcements coming from outside Korea to the front line areas in case a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula. 

In the past the ROK-US Combined Forces Command held the exercise, and since 2002, it has been carried out in conjunction with Foal Eagle, a field training exercise. In Key Resolve exercises held last year--from February 27 to March 9--over 2,100 U.S. soldiers including 800 stationed abroad took part along with 200,000 Korean soldiers.

The South Korean military's initiative in exercise Key Resolve is expected to give strength to the transition of wartime operational control. South Korea and the U.S. have already begun discussions to establish a new joint command organization to replace the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, which will disband after the transition of wartime operational control.

President-elect Park Geun-hye also stated in a press conference last November, when she was a presidential candidate, "I will strengthen the defense capacity of our country along with the ROK-US alliance and make necessary preparations for a smooth transition of wartime operational control in 2015."'