Kang's first talks with Hegseth end with a December date in Washington and no OPCON year

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul agreed on Wednesday, 28 October, to hold a separate bilateral meeting in Washington in December and to use it to prepare the 58th Security Consultative Meeting, the allies' annual defence ministers' forum, which will now take place early next year. South Korea's Ministry of National Defense announced the outcome after the two men held their first face-to-face talks in Cebu, the Philippines, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus.

Kang took office on 22 September. Yonhap and Hankook Ilbo reported that the meeting had been scheduled for about 15 minutes but ran for roughly 40, and Yonhap added that it used simultaneous rather than consecutive interpretation, which it read as a sign that the two sides covered substantial ground.

Timely, not accelerated

On wartime operational control, known as OPCON, the ministry said Hegseth reaffirmed the US commitment to handing it to Seoul and that both ministers agreed to work closely so that the transfer happens in a timely and smooth way. The announcement set no target year and did not say whether verification of the future Combined Forces Command's full operational capability had been completed. Yonhap pointed out that the word accelerate, which appeared in the joint statement of the allies' Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue in September, was missing this time, and that the ministry chose timely rather than early.

A US defence official told Yonhap that the transfer remains a process based on conditions the two countries agreed, that both remain committed to ensuring those conditions are met before any transfer, and that Washington would not prejudge the outcome. The official said the meeting had been pushed back by mutual agreement because leaders' schedules did not line up, while Yonhap reported that US circumstances including the Iran war also played a part. Hankook Ilbo reported that Seoul had wanted an early December meeting and Washington had argued for early next year, citing its political calendar, including the G20 summit it hosts in December.

Before the talks, the Korea Times reported that Seoul wants to announce a target year at the meeting and regain wartime control before President Lee Jae Myung's term ends in 2030, while the US side says the agreed conditions must be fully met first. The allies differ over whether South Korean forces have passed the full operational capability stage, and US Forces Korea commander Gen. Xavier Brunson recently said conditions had changed.

A message on X

After the meeting Hegseth wrote on X that the United States stands with allies who are serious about their own defence, and that the alliance rests on peace through strength. Voice of America's Korean service noted that the post contained no specific demand on South Korean defence spending, the cost of stationing US troops or the OPCON transfer, and said it had asked the department what the phrase referred to.

Why it matters

The Security Consultative Meeting has run since 1968 and normally meets in October or November; Yonhap and Hankook Ilbo said this is the first time since 1998 that it has slipped into the following year. Seoul had hoped to use this year's session to finish the capability verification and fix a transfer year. Hankook Ilbo reported that the government now hopes to settle the matter top-down between ministers even if the allied military chiefs cannot agree, but both papers said the delay makes a handover within Lee's term harder to achieve.