Seoul Rebuffs US Contingency Plan on NKorea

[NNN0LHI]

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200504/kt2005041517141310440.htm

Seoul demanded that Washington stop formulating a military contingency plan for possible instability in North Korea, including the collapse of the communist regime, the Defense Ministry confirmed Friday.

The National Security Council (NSC) asked the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) in Seoul last January to scrap an operational plan, code-named 5029-05, that laid out military responses to various levels of internal trouble in the North, ministry spokesman Shin Hyun-don said in a briefing.

The request came due to South Korean concerns that the plan infringed on its sovereignty and ability to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Under the draft plan, the U.S. military would take wartime command in case of an emergency in North Korea resulting from internal turmoil such as mass defections or revolt. South Korea has control of its military in peacetime.