South Korea speeds arms buildup to counter North

SEOUL, South Korea — The president of South Korea vowed on Thursday to accelerate efforts to strengthen its preemptive strike, missile defense and retaliatory capabilities against North Korea, and he renewed his call for the armed forces to become more independent from the United States.

In a speech to mark South Korea’s Armed Forces Day, the president, Moon Jae-in, said he would push for the South to move more quickly to retake wartime operational control of its military from its U.S. ally. Since the Korean War in the early 1950s, the terms of the countries’ alliance have called for an American general to command the South’s 650,000-member military should war break out.

Moon and other liberals have campaigned for South Korea to play a greater role in the alliance, and they have long called for the country to resume responsibility for wartime command as soon as it can feasibly do so. But the idea has gotten more public support as remarks by President Donald Trump have led many South Koreans to doubt his commitment to defend their country.

Moon said Thursday that a more self-reliant military could make itself stronger and more feared by North Korea.

But he also said the South should strengthen its alliance with Washington.

An aide to Moon said this week that the allies were working on ways to move strategic American military assets into the region more frequently, to help deter North Korea.

“The top priority is to secure abilities to counter the North Korean nuclear and missile threats,” Moon said.

Since Moon took office in May, North Korea has conducted at least nine missile tests. On Sept. 3, the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. And the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has been trading increasingly bellicose threats with Trump.

Moon has been more aggressive than his conservative predecessors about building up the South Korean military. After he met with Trump in New York during the United Nations General Assembly last week, Washington agreed to sell more sophisticated weapons to South Korea.

During that meeting, the United States and South Korea also agreed to expand the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets to South Korea on a rotating basis, possibly by the end of the year, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told South Korean political leaders on Wednesday.

Chung did not identify those assets, but in recent years the United States has often sent long-range strategic bombers and nuclear-powered submarines to South Korea for military drills.

In his speech Thursday, Moon said his government was accelerating work on three military programs: a pre-emptive strike system known as Kill Chain that would target North Korean missile sites; an air and missile defense system; and a program devised to launch devastating strikes against North Korea’s military and political leadership should it start a war.