South Koreans Ask U.S. to Reconsider Timing of Military Handoff SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea, reluctant to weaken its strong relationship with the American military, has asked the United States to reconsider the timing of a plan to cede to Seoul the responsibility for control of the South Korean military in case of war, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Monday. The Pentagon assumed operational control of South Korea's military in 1950, during the Korean War. It returned peacetime control to Seoul in 1994, but is still obliged to command South Korea's 640,000-member military in the event of war. In 2007, the United States agreed to return that power to the South by 2012. But the date was pushed to 2015 a few years ago, as high tensions on the Korean Peninsula increased the South's fear of appearing militarily weakened. This spring, after the North began a new wave of nuclear-related threats, South Korean officials delivered another request to "re-examine" the planned transfer through various channels, including in their May meeting with Gen. James D. Thurman, the commander of American forces on the peninsula, said the Defense Ministry spokesman, Col. Wi Yong-seob. South Korea's defense minister, Kim Kwan-jin, also discussed the request briefly with his American counterpart, Chuck Hagel, when they met on the sidelines of multilateral security talks in Singapore on June 1, Colonel Wi said. The colonel cautioned that South Korea was not publicly insisting on another postponement; rather, it was requesting that the Pentagon review plans for the hand-off, including its target date, given "North Korea's worsening nuclear program." Such cautious language reflected Seoul's desire to find a quiet solution and avoid a possible public dispute with Washington. Since North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February and responded to new international sanctions by repeatedly threatening to attack the South, conservative politicians affiliated with President Park Geun-hye's governing Saenuri Party have argued that South Korea was not ready to take wartime command of its military by 2015. At the Pentagon, senior officials confirmed that the issue was under discussion. But one senior official said there had been "no formal proposal to adjust plans." "Both sides have reaffirmed, and continue to work to meet, the conditions" for transfer by 2015, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks between the two nations. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate last week that the South Korean military "is a very capable force, but it has had some setbacks in funding to achieve" some of the steps the two allies have set for transfer of control, including the purchase of weapons, the stockpiling of munitions and the mastering of certain surveillance platforms. General Dempsey stated his support for the existing timetable, and noted that General Thurman and his team were working with their South Korean counterparts to help them "meet the certification and capability requirements." Seoul is currently negotiating a series of arms purchases, including missiles and a next generation of fighter jets, with the United States. The two sides were expected to discuss the South Korean request in their regular defense talks in coming months, officials in Seoul said. When North Korean troops overwhelmed South Korean forces at the start of the Korean War, the South's president at the time, Syngman Rhee, relinquished operational control of his military to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the commander of American forces then fighting under the United Nations flag. To South Korean conservatives, the continued promise that the United States would command their country's armed forces in the event of war symbolized Washington's commitment. But as the South's economy grew in recent decades, it also began to seem like a slight to national pride, and efforts to reclaim command responsibility began. But the mood in South Korea shifted after conservatives came to power in 2008 with President Lee Myung-bak, and especially after a South Korean Navy patrol ship sank in 2010 in an explosion the South blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. Opposition parties in South Korea oppose another delay. They said the old defense arrangement hampered the development of the military by keeping it overly dependent on its American ally. But conservatives here said that the hand-off would deprive Washington and Seoul of a key bargaining chip in dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons program: Pyongyang has sought to diminish and eventually end American military influence on the peninsula. Last Friday, North Korea's state-run radio warned that a delay in the transfer would be a "crime against the nation." The North has said it built its nuclear weapons as a defense against American hostilities and has long demanded that Washington withdrew its military from the peninsula. Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Thom Shanker from Washington.