“I think having the OPCON entrusted to another country and relying on it cannot be left as it is,” Lee told reporters at the presidential office, Anadolu Agency reported.
Lee made the remarks while marking his 500th day in office after being elected in June 2025.
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“Speaking frankly, OPCON must be returned at an early date. (We) are sufficiently capable of doing so, and (related) talks between South Korea and the US are basically going well in that direction,” he said.
The South Korean president argued that regaining wartime command was essential to the country’s national sovereignty.
“Military sovereignty may constitute a core pillar of national sovereignty. I think South Korea should promptly regain (OPCON) to secure the most basic condition as a country,” Lee said.
His comments came after US Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson said last week that the conditions for transferring wartime operational control had “changed,” calling for new standards to guide the process.
Approximately 39,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea under a bilateral defense agreement established following the Korean War of the 1950s.
The OPCON transfer remains a key issue in the military relationship between Seoul and Washington, which maintain their alliance in response to security threats on the Korean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, tensions between the two Koreas have increased following a Sept. 21 land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul blamed North Korean land mines, while Pyongyang denied involvement.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Monday that the situation along the southern border was “very unstable.”
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), she accused South Korean forces of threatening North Korean personnel by firing warning shots with automatic rifles and large-caliber machine guns.
Kim claimed that such incidents had occurred alongside warning broadcasts from loudspeakers since August. She alleged that South Korean forces fired 201 warning shots and broadcast 2,870 warning messages between Aug. 1 and Oct. 17.
She further accused Seoul of escalating what Pyongyang described as provocations following the land mine explosion, which North Korea has denied responsibility for.
Warning of possible consequences, Kim said South Korea would “surely regret” what she characterized as reckless military actions and reiterated that Pyongyang would defend its sovereignty.
The competing statements underscore continued tensions on the Korean Peninsula, where disputes over border incidents and military activities are unfolding alongside discussions about the future command structure of the US-South Korean alliance.
