South Korea’s Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back speaks during a work report to President Lee Jae Myung from the ministries of defense and patriots and veterans affairs at the defense ministry in Seoul, South Korea, 18 December 2025. File Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Jan. 9 (Asia Today) — The U.S. Eighth Army and South Korea’s Army Ground Forces Command have launched a permanent combined ground forces component command that will lead joint ground operations planning and begin training during the Freedom Shield combined exercise in March, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The new organization, described by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a combined ground forces component command, will develop joint operational plans and conduct combined exercises and training with the commander of South Korea’s Army Ground Forces Command serving as the commander, the military said.
The South Korea-U.S. Permanent Military Committee approved the permanent establishment of the command on Oct. 24 last year, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The organization then completed operational readiness preparations and began duties last month, shifting from a structure activated only in wartime to a peacetime command under South Korean Army leadership.
With the combined ground command now operating on a permanent basis, some U.S. personnel will be assigned to a combined staff and are expected to participate in joint planning and training beginning with the Freedom Shield exercise in March, the military said.
The move is part of the Lee Jae-myung administration’s effort to advance a conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control. South Korea and the United States have been working to make permanent six combined component commands under a future combined command structure that would be led by the South Korean military after the transfer, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Combined component commands for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps were made permanent in 2022, the military said. South Korea and the United States also plan to make permanent two additional combined component commands: one focused on special operations and another focused on military intelligence support operations, it added.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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