Seoul, April 10
South Korea and the United States signed a new joint wartime operations plan (OPLAN) last year to counter evolving North Korean military threats, the commander of US Forces Korea (USFK) said.
Gen. Xavier Brunson made the remarks in a written statement to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, as Seoul and Washington have been deepening security coordination to deal with advancing North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile threats. He also leads the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) and UN Command (UNC).
"Last year, we took a significant step forward in our combat readiness when the new combined Operations Plan was signed," Brunson said.
"Over the past several years, alliance planners worked diligently to construct and develop this plan, constantly testing and validating its concepts through execution during our bi-annual FS and UFS exercise events," he added, referring to regular South Korea-US exercises, Freedom Shield and Ulchi Freedom Shield.
The new OPLAN, reportedly named "OPLAN 5022," is thought to have replaced OPLAN 5015. The previous OPLAN was known to focus largely on addressing conventional North Korean attacks -- a reason why calls surfaced for the South and the US to include the nuclear and other dimensions of the North's threats in its contingency plan.
Brunson said that in response to North Korea's "increasingly sophisticated" weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missile capabilities, the new OPLAN better prepares CFC prior to armed conflict.