August 5, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s military will upgrade the Allied Korean Joint Command and Control System in a bid to ensure a smoother transfer of wartime operational control from Washington to Seoul, the state arms procurement agency said Monday.
The command and control system — designed and developed by the South Korean military — will be upgraded and ready for operations by 2029, under a 117.8 billion won ($84.9 million) project, according to Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
A key goal is to apply the latest technologies such as virtual desktop infrastructure, cloud-based servers and artificial intelligence to the system. It will also feature automatic Korean-to-English translation and teleconferencing to improve communication between the allies.
The system’s security will be enhanced, while connectivity to the US Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System – Korea (Centrixs-K) will be improved. The US military’s Centrixs-K network is designed to enable the secure and reliable sharing of classified information between the US and South Korea, particularly in the context of combined military operations. Critics have consistently pointed out the need to address systematic incompatibilities between AKJCCS and Centrixs-K, including language barriers.
“The AKJCCS update project will be carried out as a comprehensive upgrade of the hardware and software, almost on par with the development of a new system,” a DAPA official said in a statement. “We plan to successfully complete the update by effectively adopting the latest technology and policies into the system in a stable manner.”
This marks the first systematic upgrade to the AKJCCS since it was deployed in 2015.
The transfer of military OPCON from Washington to Seoul has been a major issue between the allies for decades.
South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, during his National Assembly confirmation hearing in July, said completing “the transfer (of wartime OPCON)” is the goal of the Lee Jae Myung administration.
The presidential office, however, downplayed the remark as Ahn’s “personal view” and stressed that no deadline has been set.
Wartime command of South Korean forces has been entrusted to a series of US generals since South Korean President Syngman Rhee “assigned all command authority” to US Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1950, at the start of the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea resumed peacetime OPCON of its armed forces from the US in 1994. Though Seoul and Washington have occasionally held talks on transferring wartime OPCON, the transition has been postponed multiple times due to North Korean provocations. The commander of US Forces Korea — who also serves as the commander of the Combined Forces Command — currently retains wartime OPCON.