(MENAFN- QNA) South Korea and the United States will hold the 46th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington on Thursday.
The two sides will discuss measures to enhance joint defense capability and decide on the timing and the conditions for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the US to South Korea, according to Korea's (KBS WORLD) website.
The two countries are said to have agreed that it is inevitable to delay the OPCON transfer from the current date, which is scheduled for the end of this year, given the volatile situation on the Korean Peninsula.
They are known to have agreed to delay the transfer until the early 2020s, when the Korean Air and Missile Defense system and the local preemptive missile-destruction system, called Kill Chain, are scheduled to be fully deployed.
The SCM will also cover remaining issues in the planned relocation of the US troops to south of Seoul. Such issues include whether the Combined Forces Command will remain in Seoul and whether the 210th Fires Brigade will stay in Dongducheon in northern Gyeonggi Province.
An official of the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that the controversial issue of deploying the US Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, to the Korean Peninsula is not likely to be included in the agenda.
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