North Korea mocks South Korea's return of wartime operational control as premature excitement

US-ROK Discord Over August Joint Exercise Reduction
"US Delays Control Return, Uses COVID as Excuse for Cutback"
"South Korea Boasts Prematurely About Return... Ridiculed Ally"

On the 27th, the 67th anniversary of the "Victory Day of the Fatherland Liberation War," Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, attended and delivered a speech at the 6th National Veterans' Meeting held at the Pyongyang April 25th Cultural Hall, according to the front page of the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers' Party, on the 28th. The photo shows Chairman Kim raising his right hand in greeting as the attendees cheer.

With the upcoming South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises scheduled for August, North Korea mocked the drills by pointing out that they will be conducted in a significantly scaled-down form, claiming that the illusion of the "blood alliance" has been exposed. It alleges that the U.S. is trying to reduce the scale of the exercises to delay the transfer of wartime operational control, while the Moon Jae-in administration is obsessed with achieving the transfer within its term to claim credit.

North Korea's external propaganda outlet Uri Minjokkkiri stated on the 30th in an article titled "Different Dreams" that "the U.S. does not want to hand over military authority to the current South Korean authorities," citing an anonymous expert's view that "the U.S. could find other excuses next year and the year after to postpone the transfer of wartime operational control."

The outlet added, "The South Korean authorities... have the calculation to somehow realize the transfer of wartime operational control, which no previous administration has resolved, within their term to make it a political achievement," and said, "Therefore, the South Korean authorities' attempt to transfer wartime operational control is nothing but a reckless and noisy act, unaware of their master's true intentions."

Uri Minjokkkiri also claimed, "Although the U.S. has abandoned the demand for a formal end-of-war declaration and decided to conduct joint military exercises in August, this is merely a bait, and the U.S. is likely aiming for something bigger in return."

On the same day, another propaganda outlet, Meori, also mentioned the reduction of the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises and continued to sow discord in the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Meori analyzed the U.S. by saying, "The U.S. has decided to minimize or not send reinforcement troops to this exercise and will hardly deploy U.S. personnel necessary for the Full Operational Capability (FOC) verification for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), so their troops face almost no risk of exposure to the malignant infectious disease (COVID-19), and they can continue to maintain command authority over the South Korean military."

Regarding the South Korean side, it said, "Their calculation is to receive even a nominal OPCON transfer within their term to build political achievements," and added, "It is obvious as seeing fire what tragic consequences this blood alliance relationship, whose dark inner workings are visible, will bring in the future."

Meanwhile, South Korea and the U.S. will conduct joint exercises in mid-next month in a form significantly adjusted in scale compared to previous years. Observers note that the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. mainland has made it difficult for large-scale reinforcement personnel to enter South Korea, making a scaled-down exercise inevitable.

This exercise will focus on verifying whether the South Korean military can exercise wartime operational control, with the verification conducted mainly in key areas. The first half of this year's South Korea-U.S. joint exercises was postponed due to COVID-19.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.