[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Why Are South Korea and the U.S. Establishing a New Operational Plan?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] South Korea and the United States have decided to create a new Combined Operational Plan (OPLAN) for military response to North Korea. The current plans held by the two countries do not adequately reflect North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities.

Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense, announced at a joint press conference held after the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) with South Korean Defense Minister Seo Wook at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 2nd, that they have approved a "new Strategic Planning Guidance (SPG)" to supplement wartime operational control.

To supplement the existing operational plans, the defense ministers of both countries must first agree on the SPG, which serves as a kind of guideline. Afterwards, based on the SPG, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of both countries will begin a full-scale revision of the operational plans. Considering that the last SPG approval was in 2010, this marks the start of a major revision of the operational plans after 11 years.

The ROK-US forces operate according to operational plans (OPLANs). The current plans applied to South Korea are operations established by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, starting with numbers in the 5000 series. The plans have included ‘OPLAN 5029’ for contingencies in North Korea and ‘OPLAN 5027’ for full-scale war. This year, a new ‘New Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5015’ was created, integrating peacetime plans to respond to localized provocations and including preparations for North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as nuclear and missile threats, cyber warfare, and biochemical warfare.

OPLAN 5027, issued in 1974, outlines a scenario where North Korea invades with large-scale armored forces, and the ROK-US forces repel and counterattack. It is a plan for full-scale war and excludes nuclear strikes.

At a parliamentary confirmation hearing in September last year, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Won In-chul briefly responded "Yes" to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Hee, who said, "Bob Woodward’s new book mentioned a nuclear strike on North Korea based on OPLAN 5027, but there is no such content in OPLAN 5027."

In response to evaluations that OPLAN 5027 only assumed full-scale war, the ROK-US introduced OPLAN 5015 in 2015. OPLAN 5015 is structured to address not only full-scale war but also localized conflicts and WMD scenarios. Known as the ‘Kim Jong-un decapitation operation,’ OPLAN 5015 is the latest operational plan that includes preemptive strikes and unit deployments to eliminate the North Korean leadership during full-scale war with North Korea, and it is classified as a Level 2 secret of the ROK-US Combined Forces. Alongside this, OPLAN 5029 was separately prepared to respond to sudden contingencies such as coups, internal conflicts, mass defections, and large-scale natural disasters in North Korea.

However, OPLAN 5015 was embroiled in a leak controversy after it was leaked in 2016 due to a hacking incident of the defense internal network, suspected to be carried out by North Korea.